Please join us for an online discussion on degrowth thought in preparation for the SIG-sponsored Seminar at the 2026 MSA/BAMS Conference in Loughborough. Here is a link to the seminars at the conference -- scroll down for "Degrowth: Modernism's Weird Political Economy (Modernism & Environment SIG)" to see the seminar description and call for papers. 

That said, you do not need to participate in the seminar to join this reading group discussion on the 3rd. We hope this combination of online and in-person events will foster conversation between the Loughborough conference and the wider community of MSA members who are unable to travel or choose not to fly for environmental reasons. 

For the reading group discussion, we will pair the introduction to The Future is Degrowth by Schmelzer, Vetter, and Vansintjan with short pieces by Walter Benjamin: “On the Concept of History,” “Paralipomena to ‘On the Concept of History,’” and “The Destructive Character.” As always, please feel free to join us no matter how much or little you have read.

We will circulate a Zoom link on the SIG and MSA listservs in the days before the meeting. Follow this link to join the SIG listserv.

Further readings if interested:

--Kohei Saito, Slow Down: A Degrowth Manifesto (Astra House 2024)

--Jason Hickel, “On Technology and Degrowth,” Monthly Review 75: 3 (July-August 2023)

--Giorgos Kallis et al, The Case for Degrowth (Polity 2020)

--Robert Pollin, “De-growth vs a Green New Deal,” New Left Review 112 (2018)