Presentation short abstract

Degrowth has been described as based on a notion of radical abundance. This paper presents a research agenda to study non-capitalist notions of abundance from an anthropological and ethnographic perspective, with the expectation to learn how to expand these spaces and bring about a degrowth society.

Presentation long abstract

This paper contributes to the study of everyday degrowth by proposing an anthropological research agenda focused on abundance, positing the hypothesis that everyday degrowth is fundamentally based in non-capitalist notions of abundance, which has been described as radical abundance. In our current system, hegemonic growth ideology sustains itself through the political fabrication of scarcity, using the formula of unlimited needs combined with limited means to perpetuate chronic scarcity and restrict experiential freedom.

In contrast, this paper challenges the universality of the scarcity idea, drawing on critical anthropological and philosophical precedents (such as the work of Marshal Sahlins and Georges Bataille's dépense) to pivot attention toward its opposite concept: abundance. Specifically, this work sets the conceptual grounds for a comparative anthropological study to understand different notions of non-capitalist abundance from an ethnographic perspective.

Expanding on my doctoral work, I explore how indigenous modes of living articulate cosmological principles of plenitude that inherently oppose the logic of scarcity. Key examples include the Mapuche-Huilliche principle of itrofil mongen ("all life without exception") and practices of joyful mutual aid in southern Chile, such as the minga. These perspectives offer powerful counter-narratives to dominant ecomodernist visions of capitalist abundance, which rely on reinforcing a logic of unbounded productivity and scaling potentiality.

Ultimately, this research seeks to analyze how these non-capitalist understandings of abundance, often hidden in plain sight, interact with pervasive capitalist notions and, crucially, how they can be harnessed in our effort to bring about a degrowth future.