Paper short abstract:

Shifting the geography of reason from Europe as an epistemic locale we argue that the pastoralist economies still existing in Sub-Sahara Africa provide real-world examples for conceptions of a good life which the European Degrowth movement strives for.

Paper long abstract:

The early industrialized nations of the Global North must transform their socio-economic institutions to meet the demands of Sustainable Development. Whereas the political mainstream believes that these requirements can be met within the established capitalistic institutions, parts of the civil society – agglomerated under the term “Degrowth” – argue that a radical transformation of the established socio-economic institutions (e.g., property rights, welfare systems) is necessary. To justify this claim, Degrowth advocates attack the established notions of “development”, “progress”, or “modernity”. They argue that these notions endorse a conception of a good/fulfilling/dignified life which neglects two essential constituents: autonomy and conviviality.

Shifting the geography of reason from Europe as an epistemic locale we shall argue that the pastoralist economies still existing in Sub-Sahara Africa provide real-world examples for what the European movement aspires. Particularly, we shall provide evidence from a literature review and own interviews about conceptions of a good life endorsed by semi-nomadic pastoralists from Maasai, Datoga, and Samburu communities living in Tanzania and Kenya. There, too, conceptions of a good life are contested. However, a part of the pastoralists endorses their economies of provisioning because they enable them to be occupied with self-determined, meaningful activities, thus realizing the value of autonomy. Moreover, some implicitly established habits and norms (such as meal-taking practices, house sharing, news sharing/digestion) provide examples for convivial activities missed in the affluent market economies. Generalizing our empirical insights, we shall suggest the hypothesis that there is a global opposition to the established entanglement between capitalist economic systems and ideologies of a good life. This opposition offers an opportunity to learn from other societies that embrace different ways of knowing and being in the world.