Post-Growth in the Global South? Some Reflections from India and Bhutan

Abstract The critique of growth is one of the defining features of ecological economics. Yet ecological economists have had relatively little to say about “post-growth” in the global South. In this article, we propose a new definition of post-growth as the combined application and theorization of degrowth, agrowth, steady-state economics and post-development. We then discuss – with special reference to India – seven ways of thinking about post-growth in the global South. Starting with the basic observation that the current patterns of growth-fueled “development” are ecologically, socially and financially unsustainable, we argue that serious post-growth thinking can only be world-systemic and rooted in class analyses. We then point out that the “GDP growth against poverty” connection is debatable and we instead argue, normatively, that an effective post-growth program should focus on fulfilled needs and on wealth redistribution. Against the idea that growth-critical approaches have their origin in industrialized countries, we show that many post-growth ideas have non-Western roots and a substantial number of potential contemporary allies in the global South. Discussing the example of Bhutan, we suggest that preliminary elements of a post-growth program are not as utopian as it might sound.