De-growing or deconstruction of economy: towards a sustainable world

Abstract

The worsening of environmental crisis and its incontrovertible relation with the economic process –the globalization of the market economy–, has reopened the debate on the possibility of stabilizing, down-shifting and de-growing of the economy. This article argues that such de-growing is not possible under the established economic rationality. The construction of sustainable societies demands the deconstruction of the prevalent economic rationality and its substitution by another economy, based on the principles and potentials of an environmental rationality.