Less is More? A review of Jason Hickel’s argument for degrowth.

In his book Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin Random House, 2020), Jason Hickel provides a fascinating account of what is wrong with capitalism and how a shift to degrowth will allow us to move towards a post-capitalist world. There are a number of critical assessments of climate change and environmental destruction. Hickel stands out, however, by the way he clearly locates the roots of our problems in capitalism and acknowledges that overcoming these problems requires nothing else than transforming capitalism. In this blog post, I will draw out Hickel’s major contributions as well as provide a couple of critical reflections.

The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Corbyn

Three times, Jeremy Corbyn surprised his critics within the political establishment including many on the centre-right within the Labour Party and here especially the Parliamentary Labour Party as well as left-leaning journalists writing for newspapers such as the Guardian. First, nobody thought he would win the election to become party leader in 2015. This outcome had hardly sunk in, when people inside the party used the lost EU referendum in June 2016 to challenge his leadership. Again, Corbyn carried by a groundswell of grassroots support defied his critics and was returned as leader. Third, many had written Corbyn off prior to the June 2017 general elections, when Labour achieved one of its best results in years and the Conservatives lost their absolute majority in Parliament. The December 2019 general elections, however, brought this remarkable period in British politics to an abrupt end. In this post, I will reflect on the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn, the missed opportunities for radical, progressive change as well as the possible paths ahead.