Degrowth and decent work

Birte Strunk

Chapter 42 in The Elgar Companion to Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals, 2025, pp 526-537 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter outlines degrowth perspectives on SDG 8, ‘Economic Growth and Decent Work’, as well as on ‘work’ more broadly. Degrowth criticizes the link drawn between growth and decent work, and formulates a critique of both: Of ‘growth’ as a yardstick of progress, and of ‘work’ or waged employment as a way to organize socially necessary labor. I synthesize the literature on working time and emissions, as well as on work-time reduction (WTR), to address a range of questions within the degrowth literature, such as whether WTR should directly decrease emissions, or rather serve to absorb job loss in non-growing systems. Lastly, I draw from feminist and postwork scholarship to highlight that in a capitalist work society, unpaid care work, but also non-’work’ activities, such as leisure and play, are systematically undervalued. Overall, degrowth would call for a radical reimagining of ‘work’ which would be quite distinct from SDG 8.

Keywords: Business and Management; Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Sociology and Social Policy; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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