Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Less is More
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World | Jason Hickel
4 posts | 2 read
'A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times ... If you're looking for transformative ideas, this book is for you.' KATE RAWORTH, economist and author of Doughnut Economics A Financial Times Book of the Year ______________________________________ Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH. Less is More is the wake-up call we need. By shining a light on ecological breakdown and the system that's causing it, Hickel shows how we can bring our economy back into balance with the living world and build a thriving society for all. This is our chance to change course, but we must act now. ______________________________________ 'A masterpiece... Less is More covers centuries and continents, spans academic disciplines, and connects contemporary and ancient events in a way which cannot be put down until it's finished.' DANNY DORLING, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford 'Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind in the way that insects used to in abundance but soon shan't unless we are able to heed his beautifully rendered warning.' RUSSELL BRAND 'Jason Hickel shows that recovering the commons and decolonizing nature, cultures, and humanity are necessary conditions for hope of a common future in our common home.' VANDANA SHIVA, author of Making Peace With the Earth 'This is a book we have all been waiting for. Jason Hickel dispels ecomodernist fantasies of "green growth". Only degrowth can avoid climate breakdown. The facts are indisputable and they are in this book.' GIORGIS KALLIS, author of Degrowth 'Capitalism has robbed us of our ability to even imagine something different; Less is More gives us the ability to not only dream of another world, but also the tools by which we can make that vision real.' ASAD REHMAN, director of War on Want 'One of the most important books I have read ... does something extremely rare: it outlines a clear path to a sustainable future for all.' RAOUL MARTINEZ, author of Creating Freedom 'Jason Hickel takes us on a profound journey through the last 500 years of capitalism and into the current crisis of ecological collapse. Less is More is required reading for anyone interested in what it means to live in the Anthropocene, and what we can do about it.' ALNOOR LADHA, co-founder of The Rules 'Excellent analysis...This book explores not only the systemic flaws but the deeply cultural beliefs that need to be uprooted and replaced.' ADELE WALTON
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
spinedestroyer
Pickpick

This was a good and fairly easy read, more of an argumentative piece than a deep-dive into what degrowth would look like, with animism and reciprocity as its themes. Some academics struggle with writing for a general audience, but Jason Hickel (who is an economic anthropologist) is not one of them. I was upset by the story of enclosure and rise of dualism and really loved the last chapter‘s foray into how trees improve humans.

blurb
spinedestroyer
post image

Prior to this, animism - viewing the world as alive and fragile, not something that you could exploit - was the widespread philosophical belief at the time. Basically the enlightenment philosophers transformed the living, fragile mother earth to a dead harlot so as to get to commodify and plunder it. I‘ve heard of primitive accumulation before but never saw it put it like this!

blurb
spinedestroyer
post image

Basically - Hickel argues that philosophers created a new view of the world during the enlightenment - they started arguing that the animal world was basically dead and filled with non-thinking automatons - and that this was a way to philosophically justify exploiting the earths “resources” after feudalism. In fact, thinking of the earth as “resources” and not an ecosystem was a product of this.

blurb
spinedestroyer
post image

I started reading this maybe 6 months ago so as to use as a source on an assignment on degrowth. I only skimmed the introduction and conclusion then and I‘m now reading it from chapter one, which is on the origins of capitalism. It‘s so interesting and I‘m having a bit of a mind blown moment about it (tho maybe it‘s anthropology 101 for others)...