Think Big Socialism and the Spectre of Degrowth: The Ghost of Progress (Part I)

by Eric Pineault*

A fascinating aspect of Jacobin’s Earth Wind and Fire issue is the obsessive “presence of the absence” of Degrowth, of limits and the critique of scale. When mentioned, Degrowth is evoked to further convince the reader of the necessity and reasonableness of green Keynesianism and accelerated centrally planned solar communism. Writing after several prominent ecological and marxist thinkers have produced thorough critiques of Jacobin’s ecomodernism, I want to explore this absent presence.