The Movement for Happy Degrowth carries out its activities in four main domains:
– Lifestyles;
– Technologies;
– Politics;
– Culture.
We consider these four elements as forming a sort of “stool”, in which three solid legs – Lifestyles, Technologies and Politics – support the top of the stool, Culture.
Without any of these legs, the stool cannot stand. If technologies that reduce resources consumption are used alone, they can cause the so-called “rebound effect”: an energy-efficient car that uses half the petrol of other cars, getting twice the miles per gallon, may induce drivers to travel more. This can only be avoided through a change in people’s lifestyles and a legislation that limits car traffic and encourages public transportation.
Only when the three legs are all together can they effectively support the top of the stool – the cultural paradigm of degrowth – which, in turn, unites and supports the legs. Without a cultural revolution to wipe out the values of growth from our collective imagination, the three “legs” would be but mere firewood.