Editorial: Introducing Anarchy and Degrowth: Towards rebellious, prefigurative, and insurrectionary degrowth ecologies

 

Alexander Dunlap and Josephine Becker

Where is the anarchy in degrowth? This introduction to the Special Issue: Anarchy and Degrowth confronts the persistent absence or marginalisation of anarchism within the degrowth discourse. While degrowth positions itself as a transformative ‘movement,’ opposing capitalist modernity and ecological exploitation, it is increasingly dominated by an institutionalised, policy-oriented, and statist framework. In contrast, anarchist traditions offer anti-authoritarian, action oriented, and community-rooted, or prefigurative, approaches to social and ecological transformation. This introduction critiques degrowth’s limited engagement with anarchism, its appropriation without attribution, and its continued neglect ofautonomous and anarchist theory and practice (e.g., praxis). The introduction is framed by two concerns raised by Ted Trainer (2024): (1) Degrowth underestimates the harms done to the planet, and (2) fails to discuss the tactics, strategies, and pathways to remedy these planetary harms. Confirming these concerns, we revisit anarchist histories and political fault lines to sharpen degrowth’s political intelligence and projectuality. In response to these concerns, we then advocate for integrating an ecosystem of tactics into degrowth. This leads to presenting the seven articles of the Special Issue that are organised into three sections: Discussions and Interventions, Struggles Converge, and Organise to Resist. The introduction further warns of degrowth institutionalisation, hoping to push degrowth beyond its comfort zones and toward embodied, prefigurative, and antagonistic forms of struggle. This introduction concludes by discussing how degrowth can move forward and suggests research agendas to advance ideas of anarchy and degrowth.


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