Future Histories· Staffel 3· Folge 30

S03E30 - Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

Sonntag, 19. Januar 2025 · 1 h 35

MP3

Shownotes

Kohei Saito and Matt Huber discuss degrowth communism, socialist ecomodernism and their respective views on growth, natural limits, technology and progress.

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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

democratic-planning.com

Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.

journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1

Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construc…

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

indep.network

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

planningresearch.net

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Shownotes

Kohei Saito at University of Tokyo:

u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_04217.html

Saito is chair of the “Beyond Capitalism: War Economy and Democratic Planning” Program at The New Institute:

thenew.institute/en/programs/beyond-capitalism…

Matt Huber at Syracuse University:

maxwell.syr.edu/directory/matthew-t-huber

Saito, K. (2024). Slow Down: How Degrowth Communism can save the Earth. W&N.

weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/kohei-saito…

Saito, K. (2023). Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Cambridge University Press.

cambridge.org/core/books/marx-in-the-anthropoc…

Saito, K. (2017). Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy. Monthly Review Press.

monthlyreview.org/product/karl_marxs_ecosocial…

Huber, M. T. (2022). Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. Verso Books.

versobooks.com/products/775-climate-change-as-…

Huber, M. T. (2013). Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital. University of Minnesota Press.

upress.umn.edu/9780816677856/lifeblood

Matt Huber’s and Leigh Philipps’s review of Saito’s recent work:

jacobin.com/2024/03/kohei-saito-degrowth-commu…

on Huber’s critique of degrowth:

jacobin.com/2023/07/degrowth-climate-change-ec…

more articles on Jacobin by Huber:

jacobin.com/author/matt-huber

Matt Huber’s medium blog:

medium.com/@Matthuber78

On Ecomodernism:

thebreakthrough.org/ecomodernism

Matt Huber’s stance on the term “Ecomodernism”:

medium.com/@Matthuber78/clarifications-on-ecom…

on Vaclav Smil:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Smil

chapter on machinery and modern industry in Marx’s Capital Vol.1:

marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm

on Eco-Marxism/Ecosocialism:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-socialism

Reading guide on Ecology & Marxism by Andreas Malm:

historicalmaterialism.org/ecology-marxism-andr…

on GDP:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

Schmelzer, M. (2016). The Hegemony of Growth: The OECD and the Making of the Economic Growth Paradigm. Cambridge University Press.

cambridge.org/core/books/hegemony-of-growth/A8…

on the „Green New Deal”:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal

Pollin, R. (2018) De-Growth vs. a Green New Deal. New Left Review Issue 112.

newleftreview.org/issues/ii112/articles/robert…

Hickel, J. (2020). What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations, 18(7), 1105–1111.

blogs.law.columbia.edu/utopia1313/files/2022/1…

on Malthusianism:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism

Harvey, D. (1974). Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science. Economic Geography, 50(3), 256–277.

uky.edu/~tmute2/GEI-Web/password-protect/GEI-r…

the „Limits to Growth” report from 1972:

clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth

Hickel, J. (2019) Degrowth: A Theory of Radical Abundance. Real-World Economics Review Issue 87.

static1.squarespace.com/static/59bc0e610abd04b…

on Planetary Boundaries:

stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-bou…

Earl C. Ellies:

ges.umbc.edu/ellis

on “Decoupling”:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-economic_decoupling

Christophers, B. (2024). The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet. Verso Books.

versobooks.com/products/3069-the-price-is-wron…

on the Haber-Bosch Process:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

Smil, V. (2004). Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. MIT Press.

mitpress.mit.edu/9780262693134/enriching-the-e…

Smil, V. (2016). Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses. MIT Press.

direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4023/Power-Dens…

on Mining and the Green Energy Transition:

soundcloud.com/novaramedia/novara-fm-clean-ene…

Marx’s letter to Vera Zasulich:

marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/zasulich/…

Marx’s “Preface” to “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”:

marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-…

Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics

S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown

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S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning

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S03E02 | George Monbiot on Public Luxury

futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03…

S02E55 | Kohei Saito on Degrowth Communism

futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02…

S02E47 | Matt Huber on Building Socialism, Climate Change & Class War

futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02…

S02E18 | Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism

futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02…

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Episode Keywords

#MattHuber, #KoheiSaito, #Podcast, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #futurehistoriesinternational, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #Degrowth, #Socialism, #Capitalism, #GreenNewDeal, #ClimateJustice, #WorkingClass, #PoliticalEconomy, #ClimateCrisis, #FossilCapitalism, #EcoSocialism, #Marx, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #Class, #ClassStruggle, #DemocraticPlanning, #DegrowthCommunism, #PostCapitalism, #ClimatePolitics, #RadicalEcology, #JustTransition, #Prometheanism, #Communism, #Progress

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