Cultural Surplus and ‘Dépense'
The Great Simplification #52 with Giorgos Kallis
This week…
It is a new year - and in tandem with global events getting more intense and varied, we have many more diverse conversations about the human/planetary predicament on deck. As a system based on growth becomes more unstable, it is important to turn to those who specialize in ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking. A diversity of such thinking helps us hone the samurai sword of creativity - with ideas of what won’t work and what might - all in service of growing the number of humans aware of and engaged in our collective situation. In coming weeks we’ll hear from: Art Berman on ‘Peak Oil - The Hedonic Adjustment’, Erica Thompson on ‘Escape from Model Land’, Bill Rees on overshoot, David Sloan-Wilson on cooperation/governance, Olivia Lazard on the impact that decarbonization will have on re-materializing our economy and the global South, and many more.
We start the year with ecological economist and degrowth scholar Giorgos Kallis. He and I discuss the science and philosophy behind the degrowth movement and some of the challenges and barriers facing the implementation of such an enormous task.
Giorgos Kallis is an ecological economist and political ecologist working on environmental justice and limits to growth. He has a Bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Masters in environmental engineering from Imperial College, a PhD in environmental policy from the University of the Aegean, and a second Masters in economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. He has been an ICREA professor since 2010. Before coming to Barcelona, Giorgos was a Marie Curie International Fellow at the Energy and Resources group at the University of California-Berkeley. He has also written numerous books, including his latest, Limits: Why Malthus was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care.
Personally, it is my belief that we as a society are not going to advocate or plan for degrowth - but post-growth societies are on the horizon, and in many places are already here. Perhaps, the larger purpose of degrowth scholarship (and conversations like these) is to act as Overton Windows - to help people imagine and actualize behaviors and networks that will help us adjust as a post-growth world becomes a reality to more people, then more nations, and eventually the World.
In case you missed it…
Last week, for the end of the year, I posted a brief, impromptu reflection with a few predictions and some personal/podcast intentions. Much more to come in near future. Thanks for being part of this.
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