Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto

288 pages

English language

Published by Astra House.

ISBN:: 978-1-6626-0272-6

(2 reviews)

1 edition

forcefemjdwon reviewed Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito

Degrowth Marxist or Degrowth Marxist?

1 star

Instead of applying the Marxist method to develop a robust theory on ecological political economy, Saitō makes dubious reinterpretations of Marx to assure the reader that Marx agrees with his degrowth position. The opposing views that Saitō argues against are mostly paper tigers. For a manifesto, it is overly wordy. For a serious piece on degrowth, it is embarrassingly lacking in scientific rigor. In terms of editing, Bergstrom appears to have made a baffling mistake when localizing temperature increases to Fahrenheit, erroneously adding 32 to the values, resulting in false, apocalyptic projections. Instead of wasting your time on this, read papers by Jason Hickel.

Mysteriarch 📖 reviewed Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito

Solarpunk communism or barbarism!

5 stars

Very accessible marxist-socialist critique and defense of degrowth. Saito, himself a marx-scholar, radically reinterprets the late Marx in an ecological light. Together with the fact that decoupling (economic growth from emissions) is not feasible and a critique of productivism, he concludes that degrowth is a necessity but also a possibility within a marxist framework. By shifting from a economy based on exchange-value and scarcity, towards one based on use-value and the abundance of the commons, we can radically change our course and build a better world. Some other pillars of his degrowth communism are the reduction of working hours, abolishing the uniform division of labor, prioritizing essential work and democratizing the production process. He look towards worker coops and citizen's assemblies as potential sites of leverage to get there. The most important part, I think, of this book is mainly expanding our political imagination, and by welding the climate struggle …

Very accessible marxist-socialist critique and defense of degrowth. Saito, himself a marx-scholar, radically reinterprets the late Marx in an ecological light. Together with the fact that decoupling (economic growth from emissions) is not feasible and a critique of productivism, he concludes that degrowth is a necessity but also a possibility within a marxist framework. By shifting from a economy based on exchange-value and scarcity, towards one based on use-value and the abundance of the commons, we can radically change our course and build a better world. Some other pillars of his degrowth communism are the reduction of working hours, abolishing the uniform division of labor, prioritizing essential work and democratizing the production process. He look towards worker coops and citizen's assemblies as potential sites of leverage to get there. The most important part, I think, of this book is mainly expanding our political imagination, and by welding the climate struggle and marxism together in a coherent way. Fully planned solarpunk communism, or barbarism!