The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 24 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification
Abstract
Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being. Over the past few years, the idea has attracted significant attention among academics and social movements, but for people new to the idea it raises a number of questions. Here I set out to clarify three specific issues: (1) I specify what degrowth means, and argue that the framing of degrowth is an asset, not a liability; (2) I explain how degrowth differs fundamentally from a recession; and (3) I affirm that degrowth is primarily focused on high-income nations, and explore the implications of degrowth for the global South.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The current eco-social crisis is driven by an unsustainable socioeconomic model based on continued economic growth that exceeds planetary limits.”
From Bridging Sectors and Disciplines to Gain a Critical Understanding of the Eco-Social Determinants of Health Inequities: The ESDHI-EU Conference (2025) · cites this paper as [46]
In the citing paper
“The current eco-social crisis is not an inevitable consequence of humanity's existence but rather the result of a specific socioeconomic system that relies on perpetual expansion (46), disproportionately benefiting a small minority of wealthy individuals (47).”
From Bridging Sectors and Disciplines to Gain a Critical Understanding of the Eco-Social Determinants of Health Inequities: The ESDHI-EU Conference (2025) · cites this paper as [46]
Citations
Cites
Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet
Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., Cornell, S. E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E. M., Biggs, R., Carpenter, S. R., de Vries, W., de Wit, C. A., et al. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1259855 · Cited by 12,527
Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity
Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S. I., Lambin, E., Lenton, T. M., Scheffer, M., Folke, C., Schellnhuber, H. J., et al. (2009) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-03180-140232 · Cited by 7,187
Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene
Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T. M., Folke, C., Liverman, D., Summerhayes, C. P., Barnosky, A. D., Cornell, S. E., Crucifix, M., et al. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1810141115 · Cited by 3,139
Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against
Lenton, T. M., Rockström, J., Gaffney, O., Rahmstorf, S., Richardson, K. A. K., Steffen, W., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2019) · Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0 · Cited by 2,181
Hickel, J., & Kallis, G. (2020) · New Political Economy · doi:10.1080/13563467.2019.1598964 · Cited by 2,007
Self-citationGrubler, A., Wilson, C., Bento, N., Boza-Kiss, B., Krey, V., McCollum, D. L., Rao, N. D., Riahi, K., Rogelj, J., De Stercke, S., et al. (2018) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/s41560-018-0172-6 · Cited by 1,178
Pluriverse: a post-development dictionary
Rekhviashvili, L. (2021) · Eurasian Geography and Economics · doi:10.1080/15387216.2021.1918566 · Cited by 728
(2020) · Cited by 725
Self-citationLess than 2 °C warming by 2100 unlikely
Raftery, A. E., Zimmer, A., Frierson, D. M. W., Startz, R., & Liu, P. (2017) · Nature Climate Change · doi:10.1038/nclimate3352 · Cited by 713
Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation
Escobar, A. (2015) · Sustainability Science · doi:10.1007/s11625-015-0297-5 · Cited by 566
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Dorninger C., 2020, Ecological Economics
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Defining and conceptualising the commercial determinants of health
Gilmore, A. B., Fabbri, A., Baum, F., Bertscher, A., Bondy, K., Chang, H.-J., Demaio, S., Erzse, A., Freudenberg, N., Friel, S., et al. (2023) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(23)00013-2 · Cited by 758
Wellbeing economy: An effective paradigm to mainstream post-growth policies?
Fioramonti, L., Coscieme, L., Costanza, R., Ida Kubiszewski, A., Trebeck, K., Wallis, S., Roberts, D., Mortensen, L. F., Pickett, K. E., Wilkinson, R. G., et al. (2021) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107261 · Cited by 241
Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future
Fletcher, C. H., Ripple, W. J., Newsome, T. M., Barnard, P., Beamer, K., Behl, A., Bowen, J., Cooney, M. J., Crist, E. L., Field, C. B., et al. (2024) · PNAS Nexus · doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae106 · Cited by 216
The anti-colonial politics of degrowth
Hickel, J. (2021) · Political Geography · doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102404 · Cited by 137
Self-citationPlanning beyond growth: The case for economic democracy within ecological limits
Durand, C., Hofferberth, E., & Schmelzer, M. (2023) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.140351 · Cited by 137
Metadata
- Authors
- Hickel, J.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Hickel, Jason
- ORCID
- Hickel, Jason
- Venue
- Globalizations
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-09-04
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1105-1111
- ISSN
- 1474-7731 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-774X
- OpenAlex
- W3083442998
- Cited by
- 401
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 81 · 2025: 103 · 2024: 65 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 44.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Globalizations (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Economic and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
- Keywords
- degrowth, economic inequality, human well-being, economic recession, Global South, social movements
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
