Complementarity Between the EJ Movement and Degrowth on the European Semiperiphery an Empirical Study

Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128

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Ecological Economics

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Analysis Complementarity between the EJ movement and degrowth on the European semiperiphery: An empirical study T ⁎ Mladen Domazeta, , Branko Ančićb a Institute for Political Ecology, Preobraženska 2/III, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia b Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Amruševa 11/II, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Inspired by the thesis that an alliance between degrowth and environmental justice (EJ) movements is essential Degrowth (Akbulut et al., this issue), this paper presents the findings of empirical research concerning the pitfalls and Environmental Movement possibilities of such an alliance as understood by prominent Croatian EJ movement leaders. We outline the Environmental Justice context of the Croatian EJ movement through two specifics – the country's semiperipheral position in the global Semiperiphery world-system and the ecological distribution conflicts (EDCs) characteristic of the post-socialist societal meta- Materialism bolism in Europe. The research explores the theory-practice nexus, materialist vs. post-materialist value base, Theory-practice and the potential of ‘a politico-metabolic reconfiguration’ (ibid.) for the proposed alliance. Our findings indicate a hitherto limited, but positive potential for degrowth to provide a theoretical framework for the semiperipheral EJ movement. Both the EJ movement and degrowth demonstrably share a materialist motivation, but not for reasons of ‘under-development’ of semiperipheral societies. Our analysis concludes that semiperipheral EJ activists are open to a politico-metabolic reconfiguration proposal, though they are presently not aware that a viable reconfiguration strategy is proffered by the degrowth research community. On the European semiperiphery, an alliance between theory and movement would benefit from a clearer explication of such a strategy.

1. Introduction organizations and initiatives. In their socially transformative activism they have used various strategies (Dolenec et al., 2017) and have In this article we present the environmental justice (EJ) movement achieved various outcomes and international networking, characterised in Croatia through two conceptual frames – its semiperipheral position by a transition from local environmental protection concerns and en- and ecological distribution conflicts (EDC) it is engaged in. The latter ergy transition to issues of participation, power and recognition in re- are characterised by the post-socialist structure of Croatian society's lation to extractivism and the dispossession of (natural) commons, as is metabolism.1 The environmental justice movement in Croatia has had a the case with sister Western organizations (Dryzek et al., 2013). This different historical trajectory from similar movements in core European article explores to what extent the quest for socio-ecological transfor- societies as a result of the metabolic and institutional specificities of its mation towards justice and sustainability by the EJ movement in semiperipheral position and socialist experience, equidistant from So- Croatia is related to the degrowth concept. The structure of the article is viet-type communism and liberal capitalism. Although the contours of as follows: Section 1. Introduction presents the semiperipheral context the movement could be traced from the 1980s, its vivid upsurge has and institutional history of environmental movements in Croatia, in- occurred over the last few decades during which Croatian society has cluding the justification of EDCs the movement engages in as pertaining experienced a forceful transformation from a non-aligned socialism to environmental justice. Section 2. Methods introduces the selection of towards globalised capitalism (Špirić, 2017). During this period a interviewees and research protocol. Section 3. Results and Discussion number of different ecological distribution conflicts have led to the presents the findings and discusses their relevance to the three themes institutionalisation of a spectrum of environmental justice of the conceptual relationship between the EJ movement and degrowth.

⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Domazet), [email protected] (B. Ančić). 1 Societies metabolize, or biophysically transform, material and energy flows through different structural arrangements of agents that transform input flows into outflows (Giampietro et al., 2014; Krausman, 2017; Şorman, 2015). In this text we use the term metabolism in the sense of societal metabolism to include the relations between the size and nature of energy and material flows, and the agents who maintain their identity and position in the social structure through the transformations of those flows; the relations which lead to social conflicts, including ecological distribution conflicts (EDCs). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.11.006 Received 1 March 2018; Received in revised form 5 November 2018; Accepted 8 November 2018 0921-8009/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. č ć M. Domazet, B. An i Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128

Section 4. Conclusions summarises the lessons of the specificEJ attitude to environmentally-motivated degrowth thinking among the movement within a semiperipheral societal metabolism and post-so- general population in Croatia (Ančić et al., 2016). Comparative ana- cialist European context for the transformative potential of degrowth in lyses on international social attitude datasets have indicated this to be a general. common position among countries of the European semiperiphery (Balžekiene and Telešiene, 2017; Domazet and Ančić, 2017). More 1.1. Croatia as Part of the European Semiperiphery specifically, in these countries there is a strong concern for the ecological stability of the current global metabolism, coupled with low social In a human world-system there is a set of intersocietal networks in activation in addressing these issues through instruments such as higher which material flows (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007) and cultural payment for environmental services or Western-style civil society ac- interactions (economy, conflict, migration, culture etc.) are important tivation (Brajdić Vuković, 2014; Krüger et al., 2016; Schaffrin and for the reproduction of the internal structures of the components that Schmidt-Catran, 2017). In some of these analyses, the findings have the system consists of. According to Wallerstein (1979), it is possible to been characterised as a Passive Degrowth attitude (Ančić and Domazet, distinguish gradients between core and periphery locations based on 2015; Domazet and Ančić, 2017): there is an awareness of planetary those flows. The semiperiphery is an intermediate location in an in- limits and a concern for future sustainability, but also alienation from tersocietal core-periphery structure, and was added as a further cate- the commoditised instruments of payment for environmental stability gory to Wallerstein's original world systems structure by Chase-Dunn offered through the neoliberal social paradigm (Brajdić Vuković, 2014) and Hall (1997). Semiperipheral societies mix both core and peripheral or direct abandonment of the growth-imperative (Active Degrowth; forms of organization and humans-nature interactions and have a (Ančić and Domazet, 2015)). Analyses indicate that there is a certain transformative potential to influence the core regions in a way that propensity for the cultural and redistributive aspects of degrowth peripheral regions alone do not (Domazet and Ančić, 2017; Domazet among the semiperiphery populations significantly higher than in and Marinović Jerolimov, 2014). Semiperiphery as a theoretical con- European (and other Western) core societies (Brajdić Vuković, 2014; cept helps us to understand positionality and the usage of resources Krüger et al., 2016; Schaffrin and Schmidt-Catran, 2017). characteristic for specific societies (Blagojević Hughson, 2015), and creates a distortion in the neocolonial production of knowledge through 1.2. Institutional History of Environmentalism in Socialism and Post- dominant paradigms, concepts, indicators, theories (Connell, 2007). socialism in Croatia The semiperiphery can be characterised by a set of structural dis- positions of societies (Blagojević Hughson, 2015) and research has the In 1971 the former Yugoslav state (which included Croatia) in its task to disentangle the structural differences between the semiper- Five-year Plan addressed the problem of environmental crisis by in- iphery and the core not only in terms of economic development but also voking the protection of the quality of man's natural environment by differences in values, urban-rural relations, lifestyles, gender regimes, imposing specific economic measures and technology that does not institutions, social movements, etc. Usually semiperipheral societies, jeopardize the environment. The state organized the first assembly of often referred to as a middle class or as semi-imperial or semi-in- the Yugoslavian council for the protection and improvement of man's en- dustrial, are those that regardless of achieving significant levels of in- vironment which gathered all the actors relevant for environmental is- dustrialization remain dependent on core societies whilst having higher sues and declared itself a social movement (Lay and Puđak, 2014). Even levels of unemployment and poverty. They therefore tend not to focus the state and its official self-governing socialist ideology at that time EJ concerns on providing access to basic benefits of development, and addressed the problem of the ‘limits to growth’ declaring that self- have structural predispositions for collective reflections on different governing socialism will resolve those issues (Oštrić, 1992). Un- effects of economic growth, unlike the societies experiencing peripheral fortunately, those endeavours to create a top-down social movement exploitation in the Global South (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue). were soon smothered by the expanding bureaucratization of the system According to certain authors, the semiperiphery is a space of possible and a clear lack of congruence between the movement's proclaimed ‘cognitive estrangement’ whose explorations of familiar themes can political goals and concrete political actions. lead to a new perspective on what is given and what is constructed in In the mid-1980s, the socialist regime slowly started its process of the dominant narrative of human development (Dolenec et al., 2017). dilution during which political monopoly and control started to liber- Later in this section a brief overview of the specificities of systems of alize and the system opened up for bottom-up initiatives. It should be values and beliefs recorded in Croatia and the European semiperiphery, noted that due to the absence of autonomous civil society institutions that show a potential alignment with a democratic shift to post-growth the development of new social movements as independent, community- oriented societies, will illustrate the importance of considering the based groups, such as those existing in Western industrial societies in semiperipheral EJ movement's relationship to degrowth. the same period, was not possible. Although the ‘conflict field’ was to a When values and beliefs can become part of a coherent system, they certain extent disabled by the authoritarianism of the ideological ap- can become a part of culture, social norm or paradigm, and determine paratus (Tomić-Koludrović, 1993) some civil initiatives managed to the field of political action and sustainability-oriented strategies. Social emerge primarily in the fields of women's rights, culture and environ- transformation and a shift towards post-growth oriented societies as- mental protection (Bežovan, 2004; Bežovan and Zrinščak, 2007; Stubbs, sumes, as degrowth theoreticians and activists underlay (cf. Cattaneo 2007). In the 1980s, the first antinuclear debates and campaigns et al., 2012), a realization of a socio-metabolic transformation through emerged around which the environmental movement started to de- the widening and deepening of democratization, thus leading to social velop. The antinuclear movement was at that time quite extensive and emancipation. A deeper democratization will include drawing from a forceful especially due to the Chernobyl catastrophe, accompanied by more diverse system of values and beliefs. Social changes unfolding in strong antinuclear public opinion and a strong inclination towards re- either more revolutionary or evolutionary social dynamics, but within newables among the general population (Cifrić et al., 1990). The the frames of widening and deepening democratization, depend on the movement itself was strengthened by emergent local activism con- existence and formation of specific value orientations professed by in- cerning the topics of waste disposal and construction of hydroelectric dividuals. In this sense, and with a view to the transformative potential power plants (Oštrić, 1992). of the semiperiphery alluded to above, it is interesting to survey some After the institutional abandonment of socialism in 1991, the en- previously explored specificities of the values and belief systems pre- vironmental movement continued to develop within the civil society valent in Croatia and the broader European semiperiphery. sector, in line with the newly proclaimed ideology of market liberalism. Previous research comparing Croatia and Southeastern Europe to In reality, the activism of CSOs was under the guard of the state and the Northwestern Europe and the world in general has shown a particular state's ambiguous and contradictory stance towards the development of

121 č ć M. Domazet, B. An i Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128 the so-called third sector. The transitional process of the 1990s entailed conflictual focus is directed towards matters of fossil fuels and climate significant changes to the social context including rising social injustice (conflict categories recognized with EJAtlas). An illustrative case equalities and detrimental effects of the war (rising unemployment, is the planned reconstruction of a coal fired power station (Plomin), impoverishment, dominant nationalist rhetoric in public discourse), owned by the state electricity production and distribution company.4 which opened a space for the work of numerous newly established The plan for the reconstruction proposed by the contemporary man- CSOs. Though they contributed in various forms of aid, health and agement was strongly opposed by local, national and international psycho-social provision, the slow democratization of society in general environmental civil society organizations (CSOs). They claimed that and the state in particular made working within those organizations such a project would make the required long-term cuts in GHG emis- hard (Stubbs, 2007). This was especially true for those organizations sions impossible. Additionally, the coal needed for the plant would be critical of the government concerning various rights issues. They were imported from Colombia where it is known to pose a direct social and perceived as suspicious and anti-Croatian, not only from the perspective environmental threat to local communities (Cardoso, 2015). A national of the state but also in the public sphere. A similar situation occurred in (with strong international connections – Green Action) and a ‘local’ some other post-communist countries thus positioning Croatia close to (Green Istria) CSO were the leaders of popular resistance. Included in Slovenia, the Czech Republic or Poland (Dill et al., 2012). the broader organizational network, they also led a big national cam- The environmental movement shared the same fate, as the sub- paign against the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the scribing organizations engaged in environmental issues did not have the Adriatic seabed, connecting natural spaces as a source of tourism in- political and financial support needed for the institutional im- come with fossil fuel extractivism, and resulting in a government plementation of their agendas and activities. The situation improved moratorium on offshore drilling. from the year 2000 when the centre-left coalition in government nur- Institutionally, Green Action has become the most visible environ- tured cooperation and positive relations with CSOs. Open dialogue and mental organization and a focal point for building cooperation within a fruitful cooperation helped CSOs improve their public image. network of environmental organizations and initiatives in Croatia, to Subsequent changes of government affected this cooperation, but with the point that Jungwirth (2015) characterizes Croatia as a base for the the EU accession process it continued and within the process of most vocal environmental (justice) movement in the region. This Europeanisation the civil society sector was perceived as a social movement now expands into a broader range of EDCs (Martínez-Alier, partner in various social fields. However, novel challenges for the living 1995), having evolved from local environmental protection and energy conditions and attendant rights of the population were brought to the transition to issues of urbanism, development, specific forms of extra- spotlight under post-2008-crash neoliberal austerity. ctivism and privatisation of (natural) commons. One of the most significant structural changes within the process of The most visible conflicts are related to urban and/or tourist de- post-socialist transition was intensive deindustrialisation, leading to an velopment in which the government (local or national) is giving public increase in the tertiary sector (increase in service professions) space and infrastructure for the purpose of large private investment (Cvijanovic and Redzepagic, 2011; Peračković, 2012). The collapse of whilst excluding citizens from the decision-making process. Movements industry and the war in 1990's Croatia brought problems such as high stemming out of these types of conflicts are reacting to an ever-ex- unemployment, rise in inequalities and poverty and depopulation of panding commodification and a fundamentally changed role of the rural areas, but also led to an increase in overall air and water quality state in urban planning and development (Dolenec et al., 2017) which (Rađenović et al., 2017). The first national environmental campaigns is often justified in tourist areas with the economic idea of luxury from that period in Croatia occurred around issues concerning the do- tourism for the purpose of boosting economic growth. EDCs in Croatia mestic demand for energy and GMO use in agriculture (Oštrić, 2014). selected for the purpose of describing the national EJ movement Over the last three decades, the number of environmental organizations transcend not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) and narrow distribution con- in Croatia has increased from around 60 in 1990 to around 2900 in flicts, combining social justice issues with ecological concerns. They 2017.2 Using Carter's typology (Carter, 2007), environmental organi- include an ethical/moral dimension and typically problematize issues zations in Croatia could generally be divided between local initiatives of participation, power and recognition (Schlosberg, 2013), in the na- and institutional environmental organizations (Lay and Puđak, 2014). tional society and increasingly globally (for example in climate justice The latter are characterised by stronger institutionalism and pro- and production path of extractivism). They take into consideration, as fessionalization. Although the typology presupposes mass membership, we shall illustrate in our results and discussion section, quests for in the Croatian context, due to the specificities of post-socialist history broader societal alternatives, and are increasingly internationally net- and the specifics of active citizenship, these organizations do not have worked (cf. Akbulut et al., this issue). mass membership, but do have permanent staff, international cooperation and networking, and international funding. Such organiza- 2. Methods tions are publicly visible and recognized as civil actors relevant in en- ć ć gaging in various environmental issues (Brajdi Vukovi et al., 2014). Although novel research is being conducted in relation to how re- Over the last decade, throughout the country's EU accession, energy searchers and the broader public perceive economic growth in relation issues have driven the mobilisation of environmental activists and or- to the environment debate (Drews et al., 2018; Drews and van den ganizations in Croatia. The region of former Yugoslavia (that includes Bergh, 2017; 2016), no qualitative research with EJ activists from semi- “ ” Croatia) is characterised in this period by so-called modernization peripheral countries has hitherto been reported. Importantly, both in- Š ć projects which aim to decarbonise the economy ( piri , 2017). Based stitutionalised and ‘casual’ activists in environmental justice organiza- 3 fi on the cornucopia of information provided by the EJAtlas , scienti c tions form a special sub-group in the national population, as leaders of analysis has shown that most of the EDCs in the region have occurred resistance to growth-mandated extractivism opposed to long-term due to hydropower projects, related to an increase in foreign invest- community stability, and as intellectual bridge-builders between the Š ć ment in the production of hydro-electricity ( piri , 2017). For Croatian global environmental justice movement and local environmental con- fi society the context of EDCs is speci c in a way that most of the flicts (including EDCs). Therefore, their degrowth attitudes can paint an interesting picture of the potential for alliances between the environmental justice (EJ) movement and degrowth theory, forged in en- 2 Organizations with declared activity in environmental protection. This vironmental justice conflicts locally, regionally and globally. If actions number is derived from the official register of non-governmental organizations in Croatia (https://uprava.gov.hr/registar-udruga/826). 3 www.ejatlas.org 4 See more: https://ejatlas.org/conflict/plomin-power-station-unit-c-croatia

122 č ć M. Domazet, B. An i Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128 of the Croatian EJ movement depend on a socio-metabolic transfor- contemporary EJ movements (Martinez-Alier, 2017). In addition, these mation,5 but the said transformation currently does not embody ex- organizations have been included in various campaigns related to treme extractivist patterns that are inherent in the global periphery ecological distribution conflicts. Activists chosen for the interview, four proper (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue), then the resulting field of of them women and four of them men, are either former leaders, cur- action for environmentalism is narrowed down when compared to the rent leaders or those responsible for leading specific campaigns and dominant global situation. This is evident in low civic environmental actions (co)organized by their respective organizations. engagement and faltering of green political actors on the national level. The interviews were recorded and transcribed whilst the coding was In search of a framework within which theory fosters conception done inductively with NVivo software.8 The generated codes were then and action in the special context of the semiperiphery it is interesting to grouped into thematic categories instructive for the relationship be- investigate the extent to which degrowth does now and could in the tween the EJ movement in Croatia and the degrowth concept. future serve this function for the EJ movement, in anticipating forth- Throughout the text, we have anonymised interviewees' responses coming EDCs and serving as a guiding principle in the strategies of as per ethical guarantees, and concluded that their personal and orga- struggle. Croatia here serves as a sufficiently self-contained example of nizational identity is irrelevant for the interpretation of findings. In the post-socialist and semiperipheral civic organizations, activists' world- results section italicised paragraphs present a selected respondent's il- views and history of EDCs to provide an insight into the potential for lustrative statement related to the topic analysed, and are marked as socio-metabolic transformation the degrowth theory calls for. ‘#N’ referring to a particular respondent. From the standpoint of re- The research presented in this paper was carried out by the Institute search ethics all the study participants were informed about the pur- for Social Research in Zagreb – Centre for Research in Social pose of the study, gave their consent to be recorded and their recordings Inequalities and Sustainability and the Institute for Political Ecology in were archived according to the ethical and safety policy of the Institute the autumn of 2017. The broader question guiding the study concerned for Social Research in Zagreb. the relation between the EJ movement in Croatia, as embodied in the self-presentation of its leading activists, and degrowth as a concept 3. Results and Discussion present in the public sphere (Domazet and Dolenec, 2016; Matutinović, 2012). We were interested to what extent do EJ movement leading Following from our research guide topics (cf. Methods) in dialogue activists, as those social actors that are engaged through their profes- with the conceptual theses concerning the relation between the EJ sional activism with socio-ecological issues, understand and perceive movement and degrowth, as outlined in Akbulut et al. (this issue) and degrowth as a concept and to what extent they can frame their personal serving as the editorial introduction to this special issue, our findings and organizational activism within it. are grouped around three main themes. The first states that degrowth For that purpose we conducted semi-structured interviews that on “theorizes a way out [of the crisis]”, whilst EJ movement “provides a average lasted for 1 h. Our interview guide consisted of four general large scale force of resistance” (Akbulut et al., this issue). The second topics: concerns the materialist rather than post-materialist nature of the joint interest of degrowth and the EJ movement, whilst the third explores the a) environmental justice activism in general (personal reasons for ac- extent to which both are perceived to seek a general “politico-metabolic tivism; perception of key ecological issues globally and locally; configuration” rather than just exposing inadequacies in political in- modes and tactics of struggle; opponents in the struggle) stitutional structures or solely accounting for the socio-metabolic b) issues concerning the global economic system (attitudes towards foundations of unjust and unsustainable systems at hand (cf. Akbulut capitalism, socialism, green economy, moral economy; economy and et al., this issue). quality of life; perception of economic growth) c) institutional configuration of the global social-metabolism (politico- metabolic configuration; envisioning future threats; redistributive 3.1. Degrowth Theory as a Conceptual Foundation for the EJ Movement? justice) d) degrowth (notion of degrowth; degrowth between theory and Relying primarily on publications such as Degrowth: vocabulary movement; degrowth and environmental justice; quality of life and (D'Alisa et al., 2015, in Croatian translation of 2016) and educational wellbeing; life values) promotional activities in academic and activist institutions9 in Croatia, our respondents generally classify degrowth into a theoretical box in The reason for choosing interviews for the purpose of this study lies the sense that they most readily recognise its goal of reducing the en- in their suitability for exploring perspectives on particular topics which vironmental impact of human activities, but are much less clear about could be defined as novel (i.e. relation between EJ and degrowth). We goals such as redistribution and conviviality transition (Cosme et al., conducted 8 interviews with activists from Green Action, Green Istria, 2017). Their attitude to degrowth was generally positive (if swiftly Right to the City6 and Society for Sustainable Development Design.7 These enjoined by caution as to the local practical implications), none of them are prominent environmental organizations in Croatia, mostly re- rejecting it as a dead-end defeatism or an unjust and illusory utopianism cognized by the EJAtlas, that could be labelled as EJ organizations since (cf. Horvat, 2013; Kallis and March, 2014; Milanović, 2017 for varia- part of their political struggle on local, national and international level tions and discussions of such positions). They do connect it to an deals with issues of climate justice, water justice, resource extractivism awareness of global crisis issues such as climate change, and can, in a and energy policy, pollution and toxic waste and urban environmental few instances explicitly, include it in the contradiction between capi- justice. These issues are recognized as a range of resistance aspects of talist growth and living conditions (or even a ‘good life’) rather than the traditional Marxist conflict between capital and labour (cf. Akbulut

5 This is what the conceptual connection between post-growth proposals and EDCs implies in the opening theoretical analysis (Akbulut et al., this issue). 8 All of the quotations used in this paper were translated by the authors of the 6 A detailed analysis of the genesis and transformation of the Right to the City text. The vernacular mode of expression and particular styles of argument were organization and associated movement is provided in Dolenec et al., 2017. maintained where possible to provide a more exact presentation of the ﬁndings. 7 Society for Sustainable Development Design is an organization dealing with Due to limitations of space, parts of some statements were abbreviated or minor climate change mitigation, citizens' participation in sustainable energy policy- contextual information was added in []. making, energy poverty alleviation and renewables education (Robić et al., 9 http://ipe.hr/en/repository/; http://zelena-akcija.hr/hr/tagovi/eko_ 2018; Robić and Ančić, 2018). This organization is not yet recognized by the seminar; http://zk.dbi.hr/category/ck3-protekle-aktivnosti/ (Accessed in EJAtlas, but its aims and activities enable us to label it as an EJ organization. February 2018)

123 č ć M. Domazet, B. An i Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128 et al., this issue). In that they partially overlap with Labajos et al.'s (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue) findings from the Global South I think that there are other global movements, or there are various global activists in reservations about the applicability of the theoretical con- movements, which have to integrate these concept-elements of ‘degrowth’ cept (“detached ideas”) and sufficient radicalism (“eco-socialist, anti- […] But if everything will now be ‘degrowth’, it could happen that again capitalist”), but not in rejecting it as an unappealing idea altogether. nothing is ‘degrowth’ in the end. You know that hijacking a narrative can Respondents' understand movements addressing EDCs as opposing be quite dangerous. That is why to me degrowth has to be quite local and environmental degradation and its attendant injustice, whereas they regional and then it will be hard to hijack if it is practical. (#8) understand degrowth as a theory that provides a universalized narra- This example best illustrates the caution against overstretching the tive about what the world ought to be like (Martínez-Alier et al., 2010). concept, the whole degrowth theory, across a myriad of existing local If the complementarity between degrowth and EJ lies in the latter practical activities loosely connected into a movement. Such warnings providing the broad and internationally connected social movement, are based on resistance to a stronger conceptual unification precisely to whilst the former lacks the movement and instead has a unified theo- stay closer to clear and present local needs. In that respect it might retical roadmap, then it could be seen as a combination of the move- indicate a rejection of the possibility of a sufficiently elaborated uni- ment (needed for practical steps towards social change) and the theo- fying theory, applicable to aspects of the local situation and translating retical framework (needed for a coherent narrative conceptually them into a broad global spectrum of EDCs. Regardless of whether this connecting present day instantiations of active social change). We attitude stems from a peculiar understanding of the universalising po- found that our respondents see degrowth as a possible theoretical tential of a theory or a personal stance on the value of grand narratives complement to the EJ movement, but express further concerns depen- in general (Ward, 1996), it is informative of the reception of the ready- dent on their individual understanding of what degrowth theory entails made complementarity between the EJ movement and degrowth in practice or the self-professed limited familiarity with its nuances. theory. It was clear that degrowth, when seen as a universalised narrative, is The respondents in most cases provided us with a deeper insight as seated primarily in the theoretical and academic setting, structurally to why caution is necessary on a conceptual level, rather than just different and even distant from the activist practices they are engaged stating that they fail to see it implemented currently in their work. in. They do not see degrowth as a movement, even on a global scale: Their responses do not go along the lines of growth being a deceptive I know there is this theory [sic] of degrowth. (#2) promise of new value created for redistribution, poverty resolution and job provision suggested by foundational degrowth critique (Gerber and I can't switch into a mode that ‘degrowth’ is a global movement. (#8) Raina, 2018). As the above quotations might already suggest they di- The respondents' attitudes and reasoning can be positioned between vide into objection to co-optation of existing practices under a theore- (i) a theory ontologically separate from the practices of environmental tical banner they did not explicitly assent to (‘if everything will be movements and only contingently and occasionally aligned with them; degrowth, then nothing will be degrowth’), and doubt about the prac- through (ii) theory constructed of abstractions from existing practices tical implementation of otherwise internally coherent ideas. This can be in movements, to (iii) theory partially integrated into practices of coupled with findings of the effect of austerity on semiperipheral states movements, but short of universal coherence. The type (i) attitude can like Croatia, where people increasingly cling to the promise of jobs be illustrated with the following: through return to growth despite acceptance of a necessary trade-off between long-term environmental stability and the growth fetish, a sort But [academic theory and practices based on degrowth in movements] of ‘environmentalist cognitive dissonance of the semi-poor’ (Domazet are simply so separate, that they are never connected except in those et al., 2014; Krüger et al., 2016; Schaffrin and Schmidt-Catran, 2017). moments when the academic community is conducting research on degrowth based on the operations of some […] small movements or small initiatives […]. (#5) 3.2. Materialist or Post-materialist Collaborative Agenda? Abstraction from real-life practices in some movements and com- It is instructive to lay out the perspective of EJ activists concerning munities, into a generalised theoretical narrative, as typified in attitude the drivers and motivations of their actions in order to explore to what (ii) is best illustrated by a respondent describing where the practical, as extent EJ and degrowth share the materialist (resource access, ecolo- opposed to theoretical (Martínez-Alier et al., 2010), aspects of de- gical stability), moral (intergenerational social-ecological justice, growth appear: ‘carbon space’ for development) and spiritual (sacredness of nature/ [The practical aspects of the degrowth narrative], actually come from place, indigenous religiosity) motivations. The historical review above some even not necessarily activist communities. And here I think various suggests that the EJ movement in Croatia stems from the ‘old’ social small anarcho movements lead the way, and are trying to create small movement type, concerned with ownership, distribution and material sustainable communities, that are hard on promoting concrete concepts, issues, rather than third generation rights of abstract entities such as and that may not even call themselves degrowth, but that is what they de ecological elements and trans-national social groups. Our research facto are. (#1) confirms the materialist concerns of the recent exemplary campaigns of our EJ respondents, as well as of their understanding of the founda- Finally, in type (iii), recognition of the integration of elements of tional position of degrowth theory, as illustrated by the following degrowth theory with the EJ struggles and practices of the movements quote: is recognized, but not as a universal theoretical framework able to span all instances of the current struggles that different EJ movements lead Well, I suppose that given the globalised nature of the market that [our on the ground. This stems from the respondents' concern that as a economy has to grow], but I think that growth doesn't have to happen at theory degrowth does not (or maybe even cannot) address all of the the expense of the environment and everything else… We have a high practicalities of EJ and particular EDCs. Though this is often framed unemployment rate, abandoned agricultural areas and the like; and within reference to the actual struggles our respondents are engaged in, again if we were to work locally people would have more jobs, and that and are thus most familiar with, it is not reported on as a peculiarity of might, I suppose, I am no economist, probably it might lead to a GDP rise. their personal world-view. […] But in the case of Africa and developing countries, I think they simply need growth to rise from … well from what are often insufficient I think that elements of [degrowth] are present in many of the movements life conditions… (#4) with a green label in Europe, and especially worldwide. So, yes, yes – I think [there is a connection]. (#3) This quote illustrates qualms about the materialist side of degrowth

124 č ć M. Domazet, B. An i Ecological Economics 157 (2019) 120–128 invocation and its applicability to different positions within the world- movement representatives. system. It can be aligned with criticism of the concept's Eurocentrism as But from my […] perspective, the perspective of architecture and urban expounded in Labajos et al. (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue). The space activism, - [the concern] is definitively absence of thinking through same respondent uses the term ‘overdeveloped countries’ unprompted, the development of cities, in the sense that they become ecologically but also sees the potential for a better life in Croatia in returning to the sustainable, [so as] to make them actually socially sustainable in some metabolic practices which were abandoned in the post-socialist transi- way. (#3) tion, and are now coupled with high unemployment as a material and social burden. On the other hand, an understanding of the materially Some of their motivation and concern go beyond a mere materi- unacceptable living conditions in some parts of the ‘developing’ world, alistic orientation, but stay within the bounds of rationalist morality. In and the globalised span of metabolic patterns, are also explicitly present their own work, especially when it is related to broader international in the responses (such as the example above), and connects to the call environmental justice issues, there is more than the occasional re- for an alliance building between Northern-originating degrowth and EJ presentation of concerns that transcend immediate regional extra- movements of the Global South. ctivism and pollution, and even explicit reflection on this: When elaborating on their understanding of the critique of growth, […We] are often asked why, as an environmental organisation, we deal the respondents' explanations are based in the material limits of ex- with issues that have no connection to environmental protection […] why traction and accumulation, i.e. in their understanding degrowth we deal with access to public space, social justice, […] That is because thinking rests on the idea of limits in nature. these things are simply inseparable, it would be a pure illusion, we would Degrowth is based on the discussion of the extent to which [material be ridiculous if we were to deal with the protection of trees, and forget throughput of the economy] can be reduced so that we become sustain- what the precondition of it all was, and that is that you simply have to able. (#5) look after some kind of justice in the distribution of resources to enable a decent life for everyone. (#2) On the side of EJ, especially when describing their motivation behind paradigm EDCs that they work on, the respondents focus on no- We have the means today to satisfy [the material needs] of everyone on tions of the economic exploitation of physical space and accompanying the planet but it is a matter of distribution, and not necessarily only dispossession of previous commoners (e.g. neoliberal urban gentrifica- distribution on a global level, I mean, but also, actually locally in par- tion, tourism) and fossil energy extractivism, excessive waste genera- ticipatory fashion. (#5) tion and shortage of its storage. Waste generation, recycling and storage Despite these examples, it is fair to summarise that materialist is most often seen as the key issue that motivates their work and mo- concerns are the primary motivators of the current actions of the EJ bilises the movement. For example: movement as represented by our respondents, and that they do not Definitely waste, I think waste is a big problem […] then pollution of report separating their work from those. In talking about quality of life water, illegal waste-dumps, […Household] waste is a screaming issue. they focus on the egalitarian satisfaction of materialist needs, which (#4) importantly include the stability of the ecosystems that the human community is entangled with (cf. Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue for [As a society] we have neglected the fact that resources [in waste] are similar findings referring to the Global South). not garbage, but a useful resource. And look at our cities, Zagreb … The broader reach of degrowth thinking, beyond degrowth based on European trash capital. (#8) metabolism reduction (energy, materials), imaging a society in which But there is an understanding also of the material effects connected everything will be different (D'Alisa et al., 2015) through collective to institutional directives to address waste generation coupled with choice for a better living (Cattaneo and Gavaldà, 2010) rather than a specificities of tourist migrations. Consider: material limitation imposed by an external authority, is on the whole not reported by our respondents. In the most explicit case one of our [The] greatest problem with this new correct waste management system respondents argues as follows: will be faced by townships that have a few residents and a lot of tourists. (#2) [A] society which were to go in the direction of saying ‘now we stan- dardize everything, and no one can satisfy their needs beyond the pro- Other materialist motivations include energy and chemical pollu- scribed amount’, well that's a problem to me. I think that I would not tion through the metabolic throughput of the modern industrial society, want to live in that kind of society. (#1) especially the carbon emissions projected from the lock-in of fossil based energy technologies. Though this takes techno-scientific foresight In that sense, among all respondents, there is openness for under- and understanding of the global consequences of local development standing degrowth beyond mere materialist downsizing, but that aspect decisions, it is still based in materialist (and techno-scientific) con- of degrowth theory is still not made sufficiently visible to them. siderations rather than more aethereal and conceptual considerations. The following provide summary examples: 3.3. Whom or What the Broader Struggle is Addressing? I'd say a lot has been done [by our work] in preventing harmful projects Our final main theme captures the instruments the respondents see in energetics that can lock us in to 20, 30 years of fossil fuel dependence as effective in achieving a fair materialist distribution which could or- […] it was crucial to stop great harmful projects so as to prevent a lock- ganically align with post-growth proposals, i.e. the role they can (if at in of 20 years of dependence on imported coal … It is hard to talk about all) give to the promotion of a wholesome politico-metabolic re- the potential of renewables and sustainability if you are committed to configuration leading to more sustainable societies. In terms of unsustainability for the next 20 years. (#8) “fighting against” as a movement, our respondents see local and na- [My main drivers are] air pollution, that is cars, industry … That! And tional government institutions as the addressees of their struggle, as also some, chemical some, things. [All the way through to], actually, ‘democratic’ enforcers of the global political economy driven by a ca- chemicals uncontrollably integrated into some foodstuffs, pesticides and pitalist accumulation imperative. We probed how far they see the EDCs the like, that sort of thing. (#5) they engage in not just as contesting magnitudes of related material flows, but also the politico-institutional configurations constructing and Even in the urban spatial development activism, more akin to classic legitimising these flows: Ingelhartian post-materialism (Dolenec et al., 2017), materialist environmental considerations play a role in the motivations of EJ Most often, actually, however much there may be interests at play that

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come from the private sector, primarily the avatar embodying our op- instance to be considered, I think it's misguided. […] Therefore, without ponents is some form of government, actually. And most often the elected authority, without monopoly [on power …], I think that [implementation governments, the city, county and national government. (#5) of environmentally beneficial policies] cannot happen. And in that sense, degrowth also won't happen without the intervention of the state, but that This is not to say that there is no awareness of the connection be- state, that state can be us, right?, we can enter power and enforce those tween false solutions offered through the development imperative and changes, right?. That's the way I see it, not as some big bad state out green growth (Hoffmann, 2016) and the very structure of the current there, but as an instrument in the hands of society for, for changing things politico-metabolic configuration. The ‘globalized trade system’ and top-down. That is my greatest opposition to degrowth […] the rest is ‘capitalism’ come out in most interviews as the most likely contenders really cool. (#1) for the very politico-metabolic structure that is incapable of im- plementing long-term sustainability and the just distribution of re- Several others express admiration for left-progressive movements sources. globally, and (as in the following examples) point to the difference between the current political position and the socialist movements of A great harm comes about through false solutions for climate change. the early 20th century. […] Some economic or market mechanisms that simply try to push solutions through the same capitalist economy. And then the solution is The problem is actually that there is no alternative. There are a lot of corrupted, by the [economy] itself. (#8) ideas, a lot of different concepts, but not as there was – for example – in the early 20th century there was a clear alternative [socialism] that was Given the size and reach of their organizations, and the political advocated by a certain number of people. (#5) instruments through which environmental changes are introduced (i.e. the local institutional addressees of their struggles, local governments [We need a] broad socialist model, but for the 21st century. But some- standing for representative democracy), the EJ activists interviewed do thing that is not rushing into the same mistakes… (#8) not name global capitalism as the direct target of their fight, but are Based on the above understanding by activists seasoned in social ready to characterize it as a structural problem that leads to un- struggles in Croatia, degrowth political initiatives, either local or na- sustainability.10 Returning to the above understanding of degrowth as a tional, could find a common ground in the greater participation of ci- theory rather than an enacted movement, our respondents actively seek tizens in deliberation, design and decision making on metabolic and a theoretical articulation of the desired ‘reconfiguration leading to more development issues. Croatian EJ activists, as presented in 1. sustainable economies’. This is where the current synergy between the Introduction and represented by respondents here, still do not see clear EJ movement and degrowth can be seen as lacking, from the perspec- signals of demands for a comprehensive politico-metabolic configura- tive of our respondents. The following points introduce the source of tion suitable to ‘just sustainability’ coming from the degrowth academic this deficit. community (Cosme et al., 2017). And just as the activists and academics I mean the main thing is the system, […] I think that one of the greatest active in the Global South suggest - a “deep[er] radical criticism of achievements and successes of the capitalist system is that it convinced us capitalism in degrowth” (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue) or a uni- that there is no other model, that all else would be pure utopia. I do not fication of “a radical humanism within Marxism […] with materialist believe that at all, and I think the main problem is […] precisely that and atheistic philosophies” tying existential liberation, natural em- system; the one which forces incessantly new growth, incessant use of bedding and social transformation together (Pillay, 2018) in the style of resources even when they are limited. […] Therefore, I think that counterhegemonic and bottom-up initiatives immanent in Southern EJ something important has to change in the relationships. Unfortunately, it movements – degrowth needs to communicate clearly wherein the seems to me that the theory is not really offering solutions. (#2) political change to just sustainability lies. Our respondents do not express an expectation of a spontaneous 4. Conclusions collapse of the capitalist system, or at least not a spontaneous structural collapse “before the last tree is cut” (Moore, 2017). The following ex- The interpretation of the empirical results presented above and ample serves to illustrate the disappointment with theoretical dis- couched in the specific context of the post-socialist semiperiphery of courses that remain insular. Southeastern Europe, shows that there is currently limited positive [It] is in the nature of the academic community that it can be lost, potential for degrowth to provide a theoretical framework for the EJ sometimes, in essentialising and ontologies, and does not necessarily movement in Croatia. This potential is most firmly established in the concern itself with application. (#5) environmental impact aspect of degrowth (‘the impossibility theorem’), rather than redistribution and conviviality transition. EJ activists from Another respondent explicated that degrowth might have the po- Croatia see degrowth as a theory rather than a movement, whilst they tential to propose steps for politico-institutional reconfiguration, “but see themselves as practical (movement) agents. The potential to con- those have to be remade into a political program, seems to me. And I don't nect the theory and EJ movement is assented to, but enjoined by cau- have the impression that at the moment [degrowth] is at that level” (#1). tion that degrowth might struggle to maintain conceptual unity in re- The respondents do not indicate an awareness of the degrowth-reading lating to all of the movement's instances. Furthermore the EJ movement of class struggles in the socio-ecological contestations. They do indicate and degrowth are seen as sharing a materialist motivation, but not in that degrowth would be a closer ally of the EJ movement if it were able the Inglehartian ‘catch-up development’ sense casually ascribed to the to propose a politico-institutional configuration that leads to more semiperiphery (Inglehart, 1990; Krüger et al., 2016); it is not poverty of sustainable economies, rather than leaving the political page deliber- the society they live in that is the primary concern for the materialist ately ambiguous (cf. Akbulut et al., this issue). Some report a strong motivation behind their actions, but an understanding of the materialist presence of anarchist foundations of degrowth, seen as too utopistic for base of the contemporary global ecological crisis, of the tangible phy- a timely implementation of the required metabolic transformation: sical and chemical connection between the dominant development [Concerning] that anarchistic moment of rejection of the state as an imaginary and the environmental injustices incurred. In this, European semiperipheral EJ activists express a more readily shared vision with degrowth theory than the EJ activists in the Global 10 It is worth noting that Rodríguez-Labajos et al. (this issue) illustrate a more South, who see degrowth as Eurocentric, distant and politically luke- direct confrontation with the capitalist extractivism in the case of findings from warm, despite shared materialism and invocation of greater democra- the Global South. tization of development strategies (Rodríguez-Labajos et al., this issue).

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Routledge, London-New York, pp. 157–181. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315648491. cial session at the ESEE conference in Budapest (2017) were generous Domazet, M., Dolenec, D., 2016. Odrast kao obnova utopijskih energija. In: D'ALisa, G., and inspiring interlocutors. Federico Demaria in particular deserves a Demaria, F., Kallis, G. (Eds.), Odrast: Pojmovnik Za Ovu Eru. Fraktura i Institut za special thanks for tuition with comradeship throughout the research političku ekologiju, Zagreb. ć inception and preparation of the manuscript. We sincerely thank the Domazet, M., Marinovi Jerolimov, D., 2014. Sustainability on the semi-periphery: an impossible topic in a non-existent place? In: Domazet, M., Marinović Jerolimov, D. three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and corrections of (Eds.), Sustainability Perspectives from the European Semi- Periphery. Institut za earlier drafts. društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu, Heinrich Bőll Stiftung-Hrvatska, Zagreb, pp. 19–49. 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