(Translated by Mark Burton from the original in Spanish, which is part of a series of reflections for and on the Beyond Growth Conference held in Madrid in September 2025.)
The Beyond Growth Spain Conference document offers us a promising future: less production, less consumption… but, curiously, more public services, more rights, more democracy, more of everything good and none of the bad. In other words Deluxe Degrowth.
We know that the current model does not work, and this Declaration lists the usual suspects: capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, extractivism… all the villains of the comic book gathered in the same cartoon. So far, so good. But the document avoids what is uncomfortable. Because degrowth implies something very simple in our day to day experience: it implies less of the many things that we are used to.
Yet instead of saying it clearly, the text takes refuge in euphemisms: ‘democratically planned eco-social transition’, ‘democratic reorganisation of the economy’, ‘living better with less’. It sounds good, almost relaxing, like an advert for an organic yoghurt. These are expressions that generate passive hope in the listener, just like others such as: ‘they’ll come up with something’, ‘someone will think of something’, ‘the politicians are working on it’, ‘let’s not catastrophise, it’s not that bad’, etc.
The problem is that the ‘less’ is rarely made explicit. It is disguised under with a ‘more’: more free time, more universal services, more care, more deliberative democracy. The result is an all-you-can-eat political buffet: we will have fewer resources, but there is an extensive menu of rights and public services.
Where will all this come from in a world with less energy and materials? It doesn’t matter; it seems that the important thing is to remain optimistic and not scare anyone.
As the document clearly states, continuing with the current system is leading us into a nightmarish and barbaric situation where the worst human instincts can be unleashed, putting our lives and those of our loved ones at risk. However, real degrowth is not a fairy tale: it means giving up habitual comforts, making material sacrifices and dealing with social conflicts. And because we don’t want to talk about that —because it scares us— we turn it into a sugar-coated story, full of promises and euphemisms.
And that’s where the greatest danger lies: when those fairy-tale expectations are frustrated—because they will be frustrated—people will be left in the hands of the most ferocious populism of the most reactionary sector. Then it is very likely that the friendly discourses of degrowth will be swept away by authoritarian and disingenuous proposals that will promise a return to the past in exchange for the sacrifices necessary to achieve it.
The risk is clear: that degrowth will remain trapped between unspoken fears and the euphemisms that disguise it. Amidst all that, in conferences we continue to split hairs and to draft epic declarations, as if change could be achieved without any struggle and with online assemblies.
The most honest thing would be to stop sanitising the message so much and to recognise what degrowth will really mean. The good and the bad. Perhaps only then can we talk seriously and go forward in the right direction, avoiding the worst consequences of continuing on the path of the current system.
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