Rethinking the role of the past for a degrowth transition with Walter Benjamin: a postfigurative approach

Lucía Muñoz Sueiro, Lucía Muñoz Sueiro and Lucía Muñoz Sueiro

Chapter Chapter 5 in Dialogues for Degrowth, 2025, pp 62-72 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Within the productivist leftism discourse, entrenched in a linear, evolutionary temporal framework, the past is often burdened with associations of nostalgia, conservatism, and even reactionism. In contrast, the non-productivist left with its critique to the idea of progress, where degrowth finds its ideological footing, opens up the opportunity to develop a different perspective and use of the past. This paper draws inspiration from Walter Benjamin's dialectical exploration of the past and the future to advocate for a reevaluation of the dynamic interplay among past, present, and future within the context of the degrowth movement. First, after examining the predominance of present and future-oriented perspectives within degrowth literature, often relegating the past to a peripheral role within the utopian vision of degrowth, I propose the concept of ‘postfiguration’ -bringing inspiring elements of the past into the present or the desirable future. Second, I dissect the prevalent collective perception of time, characterized by linearity, evolutionism, hierarchy, and quantity, while showcasing examples of other temporal conceptions that differ from the current dominant paradigm. Lasty, I introduce three ideas on the past from Walter Benjamin - the concept of ‘brushing history against the grain,' the moral imperative of remembering and redeeming the victims of past struggles, and his inclination to engage with the pre-capitalist past. Drawing on them, I offer three postfigurative approaches with the aim to cultivate a more nuanced and intricate use of the past within the degrowth movement.

Keywords: Past; Temporalities; Walter Benjamin; Progress; Degrowth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035320769
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