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Slow Down

The Degrowth Manifesto

by Kohei Saito

Translator Brian Bergstrom

Length 10 hours 5 minutes

Language English

Narrators Troy Glasgow & Kohei Saito

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Summary
About the author
About the narrators
About the translator

"Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to health care, working multiple jobs, and are nevertheless unable to make ends meet, with no future prospects, while the planet is burning? In his international bestseller, Kohei Saito argues that while unfettered capitalism is often blamed for inequality and climate change, subsequent calls for “sustainable growth” and a “Green New Deal” are a dangerous compromise. Capitalism creates artificial scarcity by pursuing profit based on the value of products rather than their usefulness and by putting perpetual growth above all else. It is therefore impossible to reverse climate change in a capitalist society; in fact, the system that caused the problem in the first place cannot be an integral part of the solution. Instead, Saito advocates for degrowth and deceleration, which he conceives as the slowing of economic activity through the democratic reform of labor and production. In practical terms, he argues for the following: the end of mass production and mass consumption. decarbonization through shorter working hours. the prioritization of essential labor over corporate profits. By returning to a system of social ownership, he argues, we can restore abundance and focus on those activities that are essential for human life, effectively reversing climate change and saving the planet."

Politics & Economy Science & Technology Nonfiction Environment & Nature

Kohei Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo. He received his PhD in philosophy from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in 2016. He was awarded the 2018 Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize, the most prestigious academic award for Marxian studies, making him its youngest recipient. In 2020, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science awarded him the highly prestigious JSPS prize, awarded to the top 25 scholars in the entire country under the age of 45.

Troy Glasgow is an in-demand narrator with a background in film and stage acting.

Brian Bergstrom is a lecturer and translator who has lived in Chicago, Kyoto, and Yokohama. His writing and translations have appeared in publications including Granta, Aperture, Lit Hub, Mechademia, Japan Forum, and The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. His translation of Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi won the 2022 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. He is currently based in Montréal, Canada.