George Liodakis

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a critique of mainstream growth ideology, as well as of a variety of neo-Malthusian or liberal approaches considering economic growth as an ideology, and “growth economies” as the main culprit of ecological crisis, while disconnecting growth from the prevailing capitalist mode of production. To tackle ecological crisis, they suggest economic degrowth or a steady-state economy, while often projecting the negative impact of economic growth to different forms of production. On the contrary, this paper considers economic growth as an inherent necessity of the capitalist mode of production and explores the socio-ecological conditions of economic growth and capitalist accumulation. With a brief reference to Greece, it is demonstrated that even a protracted recession cannot reverse the trend of environmental degradation and socio-ecological crisis. As argued, overcoming the current crisis requires overcoming not only economic growth, but capitalism itself.

KEYWORDS

Capitalism; economic growth; socio-ecological crisis; degrowth; Greece

From: International Critical Thought 2018 8(1)

Editor: Wang Yi