Towards a degrowth transition: bringing interests back in

Degrowth has become particularly important in the environmental movement in recent years. However, there is no consensus on how to achieve the shift from a growth-oriented society to a degrowth-oriented society. We suggest that a productive means of addressing this issue is by turning to debates concerning processes of institutional change and sustainability transitions. This approach has two key implications. On the one hand, accounts of degrowth transitions resonate with broader theories of institutional change. For instance, some, in common with historical institutionalism, emphasise the path dependencies of existing growth-oriented institutions while others, in common with discursive institutionalism, highlight the role of ideas in facilitating the creation of a degrowth-oriented society. On the other hand, there are serious limitations to these theories of institutional change. From the perspective of critical political economy, they fail to situate institutions in the broader context of capitalist power dynamics and thus do not engage with social interests. On the basis of two case studies, we argue that degrowth needs to address the question 'who wants degrowth?', or how its demands advance the interests of the working class, with its different intersections, in the contemporary moment.