Survey Sustainable de-growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm Joan Martínez-Alier a , Unai Pascual b , Franck-Dominique Vivien c , Edwin Zaccai d, ⁎ a Department of Economics and Economic History, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain b Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom c Department of Economics, Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, France d Institute for Environmental Management & Land Planning, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium abstract article info Article history: Received 15 October 2009 Received in revised form 26 January 2010 Accepted 23 April 2010 Available online 25 May 2010 Keywords: Sustainable development Post-development Sustainable economics Ecological economics De-growth “Sustainable de-growth” is both a concept and a social-grassroots (Northern) movement with its origins in the fields of ecological economics, social ecology, economic anthropology and environmental and social activist groups. This paper introduces the concept of sustainable de-growth by mapping some of the main intellectual influences from these fields, with special focus on the Francophone and Anglophone thinking about this emergent notion. We propose hypotheses pertaining to the appeal of sustainable de-growth, and compare it to the messages enclosed within the dominant sustainable development idea. We scrutinize the theses, contradictions, and consequences of sustainable de-growth thinking as it is currently being shaped by a heterogeneous body of literature and as it interacts with an ample and growing corpus of social movements. We also discuss possible future paths for the de- growth movement compared to the apparent weakening of the sustainable development paradigm. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The dominant economic paradigm rewards more instead of better consumption and private versus public investment in man-made rather than natural capital. Such triple self-reinforcing biases have been locked in the social mentality to promote a promethean notion of chrematistic growth. Associated with the neoliberal ‘mantra’ of the supremacy of markets for fostering prosperity through ever growing efficiency, the praxis of this economic model is built upon privatisation of traditional public goods and services and reinforcing economic globalisation through international governance structures maintained through the likes of the IMF, WTO, and the World Bank. Even after attempts from ecological economics and sister disciplines to demon- strate the intrinsic limits of this model, we now face continuous environmental and economic crises compounded by a growing disjuncture between the real economy (in which the value of natural capital is seldom recognised) and the fictitious paper economy of finance. In a context of increased global environmental problems, the “sustainable development” discourse (20 years after the Brundtland Report, WCED, 1987) has been unable to produce the overarching policies and radical change of behaviour needed at individual and collective scales. We still live in a world of unchecked consumerism, excessive materials use and fossil fuel addiction. As a result, there are renewed calls to depart from the promethean economic growth paradigm and to embrace a vision of sustainable de-growth, understood as an equitable and democratic transition to a smaller economy with less production and consumption. Such a system, in the eyes of its proponents, would allow a “prosperous way down” (Odum and Odum, 2006) or at least a soft landing rather than a crash due to environmental collapse (Recio, 2008; Martínez-Alier, 2008, 2009; Kallis et al., 2009). This paper puts into context and traces the concept of “sustainable de-growth” and provides insights on the implications of this paradigm. “De-growth” stands here literally for the French word décroissance. “Socially sustainable economic de-growth” (la décroissance économi- que socialement soutenable) is a concept that is finding its way into social ecology, human ecology, and ecological economics. The discussion on de-growth that Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen started three decades ago is again a topic for discussion in rich countries. This concept is being catapulted in academic circles in conjunction with wider social and environmental grassroots groups. Not only are ecological economists working on the idea of sustainable de-growth and its implications as an emergent paradigm to break locked-in concepts inherited from the very malleable 1980s idea of sustainable development (e.g., Martínez-Alier, 2009; Kerschner, 2010), but there are also vigorous social debates in non-academic spheres, such as within Northern social movements for environmental and social Ecological Economics 69 (2010) 1741–1747 ⁎ Corresponding author. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut de Gestion de l'Environnement (IGEAT), Directeur du Centre d'Etudes du Développement Durable, CP 130/02, 50 Av F. Roosevelt, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2 650 4332. E-mail address: ezaccai@ulb.ac.be (E. Zaccai). 0921-8009/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.04.017 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon