Just friends: intimate relations in a degrowth future

Nora Krenmayr, Monika Austaller, Luzia Strasser, Nora Krenmayr, Monika Austaller, Luzia Strasser, Nora Krenmayr, Monika Austaller and Luzia Strasser

Chapter Chapter 15 in Dialogues for Degrowth, 2025, pp 195-206 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: How can love be lived in a socially just way? When we imagine a degrowth future, how we live relationships will (have to) change. The capitalist mode of production results in unequal power relations between genders, gendered stereotypes and division of (care) work. Beyond traditional patriarchal or neoliberal individualistic relationships, modern love can be an emancipatory, conscious and creative process. Not limiting loving commitment and caring to one partner and the nuclear family, but instead extending it to long-term friendships (circles of love) will be important for a sustained transformation. Care can be commonized in caring communities that transform a gendered division of labour and create new equal societal structures. First attempts to reshape daily practices, knowledge and wishes, material infrastructures and economic and political institutions, enabling communal living beyond romantic relationships and families already exist. It is essential for the degrowth movement to develop them further into concrete utopias.

Keywords: Love; Carecare; Feminism; Capitalism; Community; Labour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035320769
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035320776.00029 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:22754_19

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().