Ecosocialist Transformation: Between Socialist Ecomodernism and Degrowth

This paper articulates a vision of ecosocialism centering on transformations in the forces and relations of production. This outlook is advanced through a sympathetic critique of socialist ecomodernism on the one hand and degrowth on the other hand. I suggest that while socialist or left ecomodernism offers a vital critique of the way ‘green productive forces’ (e.g., renewable energies, ecological efficiency and even negative emissions technology) are fettered within fossil capitalism, advocacy of a socialist ‘politics of more’ within this literature (defined as growth in material output and individual consumption) risks fetishizing capitalist production relations as eternal. Degrowth proponents, by contrast, have argued that relying on technological change is not enough to solve the ecological crisis, and emphasize the need to reduce energy and matter use in the Global North, at a speed faster than what efficiency improvements can deliver. Yet, degrowth approaches (even post-capitalist variants) to transforming economies and productive forces tend to centre a politics of scale, rather than underlying social relations. In doing so, they can fail to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative aspects of growth and foreclose positive ecological and human potentials of developments in the productive forces. While socialist ecomodernism and degrowth offer seemingly contrasting approaches to addressing ecological and climate crises, I suggest that both have limitations, but also offer essential elements within a broader struggle for ecosocialist (and anti-imperialist) transformation.