Debts and Reparations: Re-Rooting Degrowth Policy Horizons in an Intersectional Global Justice Agenda

Over the last 15 years, degrowth has evolved from a radical niche topic to one that (sometimes under the names post-growth or beyond growth) gains increasing attention in more mainstream research and (mostly EU) policy settings. With all the opportunities that come with this shift, there are also some dangers, among them the narrowing of antisystemic demands to lists of policies that focus on European welfare states. Going beyond a focus on national and European policymaking, this article engages with feminist degrowth strategies which aim at achieving intersectional global justice. More concretely, we discuss the question: From an intersectional global justice perspective, what are the risks and limitations of current degrowth research centering on Eurocentric policy efforts, and what strategic lessons can degrowth scholars draw from debt and reparation struggles in the Global South? In drawing upon examples for reparation campaigns articulated from two sets of actors in Latin America and Africa, we sketch out possibilities for degrowth scholars and activists to engage with (invisible) debts and reparations, thereby re-politicizing the question of who owes whom.