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Elsevier

World Development

Volume 157, September 2022, 105957
World Development

Southern thought, islandness and real-existing degrowth in the
Mediterranean

Author links open overlay panelGiorgosKallis^a^bAngelosVarvarousis^a^
dPanosPetridis^c
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105957Get rights and content
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Highlights

*

    Degrowth signifies an alternative to the prevalent model of
    growth-based development.

*

    This paper charts a research agenda on real-existing degrowth.

*

    The cultural geography of small islands provides fertile context
    for degrowth.

*

    'Southern thought' revalorizes what otherwise would be seen as
    backwardness and under-development.

Abstract

In thinking about alternatives to growth-based development, we draw
attention to Mediterranean islands and the way they animate
imaginaries and practices of a simple life. We follow Franco
Cassano's thesis of 'Southern thought' - a critique of Western
developmentalism, prioritizing instead values of slowness, moderation
and conviviality. These values are central to what Serge Latouche and
others call 'degrowth'. Drawing on fieldwork and ethnography from
Ikaria and Gavdos, two remote islands in the Greek archipelago, we
show how Southern thought, and forms of real-existing degrowth
develop in relation to 'islandness' - a physical and cultural
condition specific to small islands. Geography, historical
contingency, and processes of myth-making combine to re-valorise what
otherwise would be seen as 'undeveloped' places, thereby generating
space for real-existing degrowth.

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Keywords

Southern thought
Degrowth
Post-development
Frugal abundance
Alternative economic practices
Islands
Islandness
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(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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