HUMAN

FLOURISHING AS
REFLECTED IN

PROGRESS AND
DEVELOPMENT
What is progress and development?

The traditional meaning of these two for us is:
 Development is equated with growth and greater
availability for consumption
 It is said that the more the population able to
consume the wealthier it is

“But what about the burden it brings to our

planet?”
According to Anthropologist in London School of
Economics Jason Hickel


“Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, It’s

time to de-develop’ rich countries”

The continues growth of rich countries result in

overconsumption of it’s people
 Human Flourishing

Hickel’s Paradigm of de-
development
 talks about stopping  All we need is growth
growth for the sake of
improving the state of
livingMaking
Traditional Notions of growth
and consumption
and the more
consumption a person
can get, the wealthier
the country is without
thinking of the Bio-
capacity of our planet.
Growth isn’t an option anymore

 Growth has been the main object of development for
the past 70 years in US. And since 1980, economy has
grown 380% but as of today it doesn’t work in
stabilizing the country.
 Old- Fashioned Economist tells that all we need is
growth but in contrary the growth achieved result in
overshooting our planets bio-capacity.
 Higher GDP per capita means overconsumption of a
person in a country compare to other
 Over consumption of rich countries

 Our planet has only enough resources of 1.8 global
hectares annually for each of us. The average
consumption in Ghana and Guatemala

 US and Canada consumes 8 hectares per person

 The First world countries Cuba, Peru, Ecuador,

Honduras, Nicaragua and Tunisia has 1.9 global
hectares consumption
People’s and Countries’ greed
 
“70% of people in middle- and
high-income countries believe
overconsumption is putting our
planet and society at risk”

-Recent Consumer Research

 The Idea of De-developing

De-developing gives negative formulation because it seems
to stop human progress and the growth that we always
strive for, but the truth is, it is:
 Truer form of progress and development that doesn’t
count growth. “steady-state”
 Quality over Quantity
 Wise consumption and good way of living
However…
 Pundits are promoting this kind of transition are using
the wrong language.
 “De- growth”, “zero growth” or “de-development”
 How much is enough?
By: Robert and Edward Skidelsky

 The book talks about the possibility of interventions
such as banning advertising, a shorter working week
and a basic income. All of which would improve our
lives while reducing consumption

The idea of countries’ strive for more growth and

consumption extinguish the hope for all the countries to
share the equal resources that our planet can give
Either we slow down or the laws of nature will take
everything including growth that we accumulate for
years

Less is more
maybe only degrowth can save our world… Our
planet
 

Thank you
Resources:

 https://thesourcenews.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/overpopulation.jpg
 https://i2.wp.com/media.economist.com/images/20081101/D4408WW0.jpg
 https://
thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/overconsumption-destruction-health-life-symboliz
ed-word-overconsumption-hammer-to-show-negative-aspect-173792897.jpg
 https://
www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/sep/
23/developing-poor-countries-de-develop-rich-countries-sdgs