Publications

A small Basque town within the province of Gipuzkoa is experimenting with a convertible local currency and seeking to set up a wider solidarity economy project. This article explores residents’ interpretations of the currency and its potential for revitalisation of the local community and economic life. The history of the Basque separatist movement, and its ties to Euskara revival efforts, have shaped the political identity of the town; in turn, creating a hospitable environment for such an initiative to thrive. Spearheaded by a leftist, pro-independence local government, this project of radical democracy and local economic sovereignty represents an interesting case for the possibilities of localised, postcapitalist futures. Employing theories of social capital and a framework of symbolic consumption, this study posits that community members identify an intrinsic connection between a thriving local economy and a good quality of life. Therefore, the use of the convertible local currency has become synonymous with acts of community revitalisation; therefore, building upon social capital and further enmeshing intimate and economic relations. Moreover, this study identifies numerous factors which contribute to the goals of the initiative, such as a strong degree of idealism among residents, an intergenerational nature of the community, high levels of community trust, and socially motivated businesses.

Like other societal institutions, academia today faces an existential crisis. Rising inequality and authoritarianism, coupled with climate breakdown and collapsing ecosystems, are threatening the conditions under which academic knowledge is produced and shared. At the same time, academics are coming to terms with their institutions’ role in contributing to these processes, particularly in the Global North. Many are recognising the historical and present-day injustices underpinning the hegemony of Western universities, as well as the links between growth-oriented capitalist logics—reproduced, embodied and often sanctioned by academics—and the ongoing environmental crisis. How can academia transform into an institution that contributes to a just and sustainable future for all? In this study, we argue that transformations towards degrowth and decolonisation are already happening in many pockets within this institution, and describe the strategic logics behind them. Thinking with various degrowth scholars, we present our vision for an academic system characterised by radical abundance—meaning a reorganisation and reorientation of the social goods produced by universities through practices of public provisioning and communal sharing, rather than the currently dominant state of artificial scarcity. We then make use of the “strategic canvas for degrowth,” developed by Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, as inspired by the work of Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright, to understand how power is today challenged within the university’s walls, and how transformation towards radically abundant alternatives can be enacted. Using the case of a pro-Palestine student encampment at a Danish university—including how some academics engaged with this student-led initiative—we identify a shared thread across strategies towards degrowth and decolonisation: the critical contestation of what a “university” is, how it functions, and the purposes it is meant to serve.

Drawing on Marx's previously unpublished research, Saitō argues for a radical rethinking of Marxist theory. The book critiques both green capitalism and state-led climate solutions, revealing how market mechanisms merely displace the contradictions of capital. Instead, Saitō advocates for degrowth communism through commons-based production, shortened work weeks, and worker cooperatives. These findings suggest that a revolutionary strategy of class war is more suitable to achieving social-ecological transformation rather than a reformist approach to markets and states. 

As a degrowth scholar, I confront an uncomfortable irony: I built my early career through the very “growth” behaviours that degrowth scholarship critiques, i.e., publishing prolifically, accumulating citations, and competing for recognition and funding. This reflects a broader “degrowth academic trap” in which scholars committed to sufficiency, conviviality, and care find themselves rewarded for contradictory behaviours. Thus, it is not arbitrary to say that the field's exponential rise may mirror the growth patterns we critique. We build personal academic brands while preaching collective action, allow corporate oligopolies to commodify our critiques of capitalism, and compete within metrics-obsessed systems while advocating alternatives. Drawing from my trajectory—initially chasing conventional metrics before shifting toward participatory action research—I examine how structural pressures trap even critical scholars. I explore emerging alternatives: narrative CVs, triennial conferences, diamond open-access publishing, and other institutional experiments. The challenge remains whether we can collectively redesign academic structures to make degrowth principles professionally viable, ultimately embodying the sufficiency and care we advocate for broader society.