Hello! 

I’m Erin Remblance and I’ll be your host for the month of December, taking you through degrowth and degrowth-aligned literature from authors around the world. I am a Sydney-based writer, researcher, co-creator of (re)Biz, wife, and mother of three children. I’m a passionate advocate for our planet and taking action aligned with what the physics demands of us, rather than what we think is possible based on social norms. I’ve been studying and writing about degrowth for two-and-a-half years, and I’d love for as many people as possible to learn about this wonderful concept. I’m really looking forward to sharing some of the fascinating, although sometimes hard-hitting, degrowth and degrowth-aligned books that are available that have personally opened my eyes up to what could be possible beyond the current economic paradigm. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride!

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, by Jason Hickel

• London: Penguin Random House
• Published: 25/02/2021
• ISBN: 978-1786091215

Less is More is the perfect introduction to the need for, and concept of, degrowth. Born in the African nation of Eswatini and having spent time with migrant workers in South Africa, Jason Hickel is acutely aware of the inequalities baked into our current economic system. It was while writing his first book, The Divide, (which I will feature later in the month), that he began to realize that we cannot achieve equality without facing the nature of our ecological crises, and that will necessarily entail a period of degrowth in the Global North. 

Hickel’s writing is very accessible and his knowledge on the history of capitalism is essential reading to understand the true nature of the system we now all find ourselves in. He also discusses the role of technology in achieving our greenhouse gas emissions targets (spoiler alert: technology won’t save us), secrets of the good-life, and pathways to a post-capitalist world. 

I know several people who have read Less is More and describe it as “the most important book they have ever read.” This is one not to miss. 

“Dr. Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  He is Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, and Chair Professor of Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo. He is Associate Editor of the journal World Development, and serves on the Climate and Macroeconomics Roundtable of the US National Academy of Sciences, the advisory board of the Green New Deal for Europe, the Rodney Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice, and the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Health.”

Follow Jason on X (formerly Twitter)

About Erin Remblance, your host for Degrowth Lit Month:

Erin Remblance established her early career in blue-chip fast-moving consumer goods companies in Sydney & London, but always sensed there was more important work to be done. Having children gave her the space to explore the environmental and cultural crises on the planet that need to be urgently addressed. She shifted her focus to dedicate her life towards educating people on climate change, degrowth, planetary boundaries, modern monetary theory and more. Erin is a freelance journalist for Illuminem (she was ranked #1 overall in readership there in 2022) and lives north of Sydney, Australia with her family, on the occupied ancestral country of the Gayemagal people.

Follow Erin on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn

#DegrowthLitMonth