Revolutionizing the imaginary: Visions for a degrowth future

My research tries to answer the question: Can imagining a degrowth future contribute to unlearning capitalist realism? Degrowth is based on the understanding that the earth’s resources are finite, and that sustaining economic growth, even if under the guise of ‘green growth’ or ‘eco-capitalism,’ will continue to lead to catastrophic consequences. Beyond advocating for the equitable reduction of production and consumption, degrowth challenges the narrative that growth equals progress, or that it is essential for ‘development’ or wellbeing. Nevertheless, one of the biggest challenges the degrowth movement faces, is overcoming capitalist realism, or the pervasive belief that capitalism is the only viable economic and political system. I argue that speculative fiction presents a powerful tool for this purpose. Authors have long used speculative fiction to explore possible futures—whether utopian, dystopian, or somewhere in between. By integrating the degrowth goals and visions with nonWestern perspectives on relational collectivity, pluriversity, and inter-species reciprocity, my research uses speculative fiction as a thought experiment in imaging a degrowth alternative to capitalism.