Notices by Jason Hickel (jasonhickel@mastodon.world)

Here's a quick roundup of highlights from research we published in 2022, on capitalism, imperialism, degrowth and decolonization. It's all open-access, and free PDFs are available via the link at the end of the thread. ?

1) This one is really important to me. Growth in rich countries relies on a *massive* net appropriation of labour and resources from the global South, draining poorer countries of productive capacity that could be used instead for human development. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802200005X

2) Who is driving ecological breakdown? Rich countries are responsible for 74% of global excess resource use over the period 1970-2017. Stopping the ecological crisis will require that rich countries pursue transformative post-growth and degrowth policies. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622000444

3) "Green growth" scenarios are colonial in nature: they maintain energy excess in the global North, and reconcile this with the Paris goals by constraining energy use in the global South and appropriating Southern land for biofuels. It is wildly unjust. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622000924

4) Here is a short piece in Nature where we describe five key policies for a just degrowth transition, and explore some of the challenges that need to be overcome. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04412-x. And here we lay out the case for degrowth in more detail: http://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:8832/UNUUNEP_Hickel_RHER.pdf

5) Did the rise of capitalism reduce extreme poverty? Apparently not. Empirical data shows capitalist expansion from the 16th c was associated with a decline in human welfare. Progress began around the 20th c, with the rise of radical social movements. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169

There is nothing natural about extreme inequality. It is the predictable result of an economic system that distributes income based on who owns the means of production, rather than according to any common-sense principle of labour contribution, human needs or justice.