Accelerationism and degrowth from a comparative reading on technological development to Fully Automated Green Communism
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This study examines how degrowth and Accelerationism approach technological development in the early 21st century, both emerging as critical responses to the neoliberal order. Rooted in ecological economics and political ecology, degrowth advocates for the deliberate downscaling of production and consumption to respect planetary boundaries and promote social well-being, challenging neoliberalism’s relentless growth imperative. In contrast, Accelerationism seeks to harness and repurpose technological progress as a strategic tool to overcome the structural constraints imposed by late capitalism and neoliberalism’s austerity policies. Through a comparative analysis of foundational texts, this research finds that degrowth frames technology as a means to slow down social metabolism – favoring low-impact, decentralized, commons-based, and sharing-oriented innovations – directly contesting neoliberal technological commodification. Accelerationism, on the other hand, envisions technological infrastructure as a crucial lever for systemic disruption toward a post-work and post-scarcity techno-social body through accelerating socio-historic dynamics. Despite significant divergences, both currents position technology as central to post-capitalist transformation and firmly reject its current subordination to profit-driven imperatives. The study concludes by exploring the potential for a hybrid approach that combines degrowth’s ecological and social critique of neoliberalism with Accelerationism’s transformative technological agency, proposing a vision for sustainable, just, and radically new techno-social futures beyond the neoliberal paradigm.
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