Degrowth as ideology: Making values for the soil of Amsterdam

Federico Savini

Environmental Values, 2025, vol. 34, issue 4-5, 327-347

Abstract: Degrowth research critiques the ideology of growth but does not explain how degrowth values gain public traction and turn into a new ideology. This article shows that degrowth values emerge from the contestation of institutions that maintain the growth imperative and the proposition of new institutions embodying alternative values. First, the article problematises the (counter)hegemonic challenge posed by degrowth, explaining why degrowth research needs to question the institutions that influence social practices. Second, it conceptualises degrowth as a double movement of contestation and proposition that works within and against the ideological apparatus sustaining the growth imperative. The historical struggle to save the Lutkemeerpolder in Amsterdam – the last remaining agricultural land in the city – shows how a degrowth ideology developed through the contestation of the institutional apparatus sustaining the growth of the airport-related industry. This struggle unfolded into a wider movement that has proposed new institutions embodying degrowth values such as commoning and conviviality.

Keywords: Degrowth; ideology; land; institutions; values (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09632719251318139 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envval:v:34:y:2025:i:4-5:p:327-347

DOI: 10.1177/09632719251318139

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environmental Values
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().