Anticipation of the Degrowth Concept in the Socialist Republic of Poland of the 1970s

Abstract

The paper discusses the concepts of degrowth and decolonisation in the context of the tensions of the Cold War in socialist Poland of the 70-ies. At that time, the Berlin Wall symbolised the divisions between two geopolitical structures, namely the West, perceived as a guarantor of democracy, and the East, dominated by the Soviet sphere of influence. However, both sides were full of anticipation, and tried to predict the directions the world would further develop facing the era of industrialization and consumption, which were perceived as serious environmental threats. In the West, these concerns were voiced by the degrowth movement, and empowered by the decolonization processes. In the East, such criticism was expressed by some artists and intellectuals individually interpreting and presenting the ‘western’ news in an eastern environment. Noteworthily, the East was more actively following the intellectual trends emerging in the West than vice versa. Hence, the eastern and western awareness of critical reactions to global changes was neither spread evenly nor symmetrically. The paper aims to illustrate the creation of discourse addressing systemic criticism of development using Poland as an example of emerging locally interpreted postulates of changes, referred to as civilization, progress, growth, development as well as the changes in human behaviour patterns. The discussed case is presented from the angle of decolonisation of knowledge adopting a post-dependence approach as the author’s perspective and suggesting a more reflective term for this case, namely Decolonization Degrowth Turn.