Solving the Degrowth Conundrum with Noam Chomsky’s Anarchism
        (talk conducted in Chinese)



Abstract

Town after town, coastal area after coastal area, spaces in Taiwan continue to be repurposed for the country’s economy, resulting in further environmental destruction. When local communities, environmental activists, and concerned citizens stand up to save the land, air, water, etc., one of the greatest obstacles they invariably face are the mantras repeated by the state—"development,” “economic growth,” and “competitiveness.” Decades of “balancing” environmental protection with economic development this way has made continued habitability of Taiwan and the planet a false hope. The phenomenon of ecology giving way to economy is not unique to Taiwan but universal. As a response, the literature and movement of “degrowth,” which calls for the abandonment of blind economic growth as a goal for policy design in rich countries, have continued to spread in the past two decades. Yet is degrowth, a movement that takes time to reach out and make an impact, too idealistic and thus unfeasible for a crisis-stricken moment like this? How can its advocacy of “slowing down” appeal to a society deeply trapped in a competitive mode that is seemingly patriotic and thus irreconcilable? As one of the world’s most respected public intellectual, Noam Chomsky has long warned against the environmental consequences of concentrated wealth and power in the hands of corporate elites. Along this line, his anarchist thoughts may provide key insights for solving the degrowth conundrum.


Speaker's Short Biography

盧倩儀，中央研究院歐美研究所研究員、政治大學歐洲語文學系兼任教授、中央研究院歐美研究所Farm for Change氣候變遷：生態文學、環境人文與韌性社會跨領域觀念實驗室成員，著有Surviving Democracy—Mitigating Climate Change in A Neoliberalized World (Routledge, 2020)。


Discussant's Short Biography

蕭代基，中央研究院經濟研究所兼任研究員、政治大學經濟學系兼任教授、Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics Fellow，近著《淨零之路─臺灣的雙贏策略》（中央研究院環境變遷中心，2023）。


Further Reading

〈以杭士基無政府主義密碼破解「去成長」vs.「綠色新政」世紀辯論〉