Post-Political Condition and the Degrowth Imaginary: Radicalizing Environmental Politics in the Face of the Ecological Crises

Discussions of alternative socio-economic futures are more relevant than ever due to the challenge of environmental breakdown. The consequences of the ecological crisis are believed to be increasingly drastic for societies in the coming decades. The bleak imagination of the future is coupled with uncertainty in environmental politics. In this context, mainstream policies have been offering sustainable development, green growth, and ecological modernization as ways to reconcile economic growth with ecological balance. Drawing insights from post-political theory, this paper argues that there is not an environmental policy in real terms for ecological transformation of society. Examining the post-political landscape in the contemporary stage of neoliberalism and sustainable development, this paper considers the degrowth imaginary as an alternative socio-economic future. Investigating the decline of alternative imaginaries for societal transformation constitutes the research focus. This paper makes several claims; neoliberalism in its current form marks the end of politics, post-politics has spilled over into environmental politics, where societal transformation is rarely discussed, and the political strategies of the degrowth imaginary bear potential to transcend the current impasse in environmental politics.