Degrowth and the Barcelona School

Abstract

This chapter explains how the work of Joan Martinez-Alier and the Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and Political ecology (thereinafter the Barcelona school) shaped contemporary debates around ‘degrowth’ and changed along the way ecological economics. I share a personal recollection of how the Barcelona school kick-started the development of an international, English-speaking research and activist community on degrowth; how core concepts from the work of Joan Martinez-Alier have been central to the case for degrowth; and how our work in Barcelona on degrowth pushes ecological economics to a direction distinct from that of older limits to growth debates.