Iana Nesterova

This book takes degrowth theorising in the direction of honouring collaboration, creating new dialogues and emphasising growth and human capacities.Traditionally, degrowth theorising has focussed on reduction and non-growth. While the ecological concerns of degrowth scholarship are felt acutely by many, the suggestion of “less” can be experienced as undesirable, going against who we are as humans, and even be false in some industries and spaces. Indeed, for a degrowth society to come into being, unprecedented (though not materialistic) growth is needed. This book unpicks the business and sustainability framework rooted in degrowth scholarship and proposes a gentler approach to business for a sustainable society living harmoniously with nature. Drawing on case studies from Finland, Sweden and Denmark, Iana Nesterova reflects on how degrowth manifests in imperfect and nuanced ways and examines the ways in which businesses navigate creatively and cautiously challenging socio-economic landscapes, and why they do this. She puts forward a new framework for growth within degrowth, centred around humanism and hope, which celebrates empathy, care, solidarity and connectedness with human and non-human others and nature.Presenting an empowering and liberating view on sustainable business, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of business ethics, ecological economics, business organisation and management.

This book takes degrowth theorising in the direction of honouring collaboration, creating new dialogues and emphasising growth and human capacities.Traditionally, degrowth theorising has focussed on reduction and non-growth. While the ecological concerns of degrowth scholarship are felt acutely by many, the suggestion of “less” can be experienced as undesirable, going against who we are as humans, and even be false in some industries and spaces. Indeed, for a degrowth society to come into being, unprecedented (though not materialistic) growth is needed. This book unpicks the business and sustainability framework rooted in degrowth scholarship and proposes a gentler approach to business for a sustainable society living harmoniously with nature. Drawing on case studies from Finland, Sweden and Denmark, Iana Nesterova reflects on how degrowth manifests in imperfect and nuanced ways and examines the ways in which businesses navigate creatively and cautiously challenging socio-economic landscapes, and why they do this. She puts forward a new framework for growth within degrowth, centred around humanism and hope, which celebrates empathy, care, solidarity and connectedness with human and non-human others and nature.Presenting an empowering and liberating view on sustainable business, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of business ethics, ecological economics, business organisation and management.

As a research field, social movement and political project, degrowth is a multi-faceted phenomenon. It brings together a range of practices including alternative forms of living and initiatives of various kinds in civil society, business and the state. Yet no comprehensive theory of degrowth transformations has so far been developed. Deep transformations fills this gap. It develops a theory of degrowth transformations drawing on insights from multiple fields of knowledge, such as political economy, sociology and philosophy. The book offers a holistic perspective that brings into focus transformation processes on various scales and points to various mechanisms that can facilitate degrowth. These for instance include ecosocial policies, transformative initiatives in business and civil society, and alternative modes of being in and relating to the world.Thanks to the support of Lund University, an electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

As a research field, social movement and political project, degrowth is a multi-faceted phenomenon. It brings together a range of practices including alternative forms of living and initiatives of various kinds in civil society, business and the state. Yet no comprehensive theory of degrowth transformations has so far been developed. Deep transformations fills this gap. It develops a theory of degrowth transformations drawing on insights from multiple fields of knowledge, such as political economy, sociology and philosophy. The book offers a holistic perspective that brings into focus transformation processes on various scales and points to various mechanisms that can facilitate degrowth. These include ecosocial policies, transformative initiatives in business and civil society and alternative modes of being in and relating to the world.The digital editions of this book will be published Open Access.