Recently an original german speaking article dealing with the emergent overlap of the Degrowth and Planning discourse has been published in the german edition of the Jacobin magazine. It highlights the implicit reliance of large parts of the Degrowth discourse on some form of economic planning in order to achieve its proposed reduction of resource and energy usage. But it critiques the abscence of any concrete discussion of how this might look like. Another focus is the recent convergence of ecosocialist positions and the anticapitalist wing of the Degrowth discourse. It also sketches possible paths for discussion forward in which Planning and Degrowth can inform each other.
The Authors of the piece are Elena Hoffeberberth and Matthias Schmelzer. Both are active in the german network on democratic economic planning and Elena has given a talk on the topic on the 26th of August for INDEP. Earlier this year they have published an academic paper on the topic, which was written together with Cédric Durand.
The publication of this article is especially interesting as Jacobin’s editorial line is usually known for being very critical of Degrowth (although the german edition probably functions quite autonomously). It might be remarked that just a week later the article was followed up by the publication of a german translation of an article very critical of Degrowth, written by Matt Huber. What both articles share though, is the call for the necessity of democratic economic planning in order to effectively tackle the climate crisis.