Exploring human needs in the degrowth discourse: Dissecting assumptions and challenging distinctions

Abstract

This paper reasserts the question of human needs as a pivotal yet under-theorized issue within the degrowth (DG) discourse. While DG scholarship often draws on human needs to critique the dominant growth paradigm, it does not systematically engage with the analysis of human needs as a research question. The paper offers a threefold contribution. First, it reviews how universal human needs theories—especially those of Doyal and Gough, Max-Neef, and Helne and Hirvilammi—have been deployed in the DG literature, revealing their shared aim of establishing objective criteria for well-being and distributive justice beyond utility maximization. Second, it critically examines the assumptions underlying these frameworks, including the dichotomies between needs and wants, basic and non-basic needs, and true and artificial needs; arguing that they neglect the historical specificity of capitalism as a system of needs. Third, drawing on Marxian theory, the paper reconstructs an alternative approach that situates human needs within the dynamics of capital accumulation and the law of value, showing how capitalism produces unmet and outlawed needs while legitimizing only those satisfiable through exchange. Building on this analysis, it outlines the contours of a degrowth post-capitalist society grounded in democratic social planning, where collective deliberation defines legitimate social needs, determines appropriate satisfiers, and expands collective modes of provisioning. By keeping the question of human needs open—both quantitatively and qualitatively—the paper positions degrowth as a political project of emancipation aimed at reorienting social reproduction toward collective flourishing and ecological balance.

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Sofia Adam a 

a Department of Social Policy, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece   

http://doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.004.01.01

Creative Commons license - Attribution to the creator - Non-commercial - No derivative works

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How to cite

APA

Exploring human needs in the degrowth discourse: Dissecting assumptions and challenging distinctions . (2026). In Degrowth Journal (Vol. 4). https://doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.004.01.01

MLA

“Exploring Human Needs in the Degrowth Discourse: Dissecting Assumptions and Challenging Distinctions .” Degrowth Journal, vol. 4, Jan. 2026, https://doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.004.01.01.

Chicago

“Exploring Human Needs in the Degrowth Discourse: Dissecting Assumptions and Challenging Distinctions .” 2026. In Degrowth Journal, vol. 4. https://doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.004.01.01.

Harvard

“Exploring human needs in the degrowth discourse: Dissecting assumptions and challenging distinctions ”(2026) Degrowth Journal. Available at: https://doi.org/10.36399/Degrowth.004.01.01.