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As we search for pathways out of the multiple crises we are engulfed in, there are a range of responses offering hope. While degrowth, emerging from industrialised societies, is particularly relevant in the context of humanity’s planetary overshoot and for those whose production, trade and consumption patterns are excessive, it is not appropriate for those still deprived of basic needs and living on the margins. For the latter, more relevant are worldviews and practices of well-being which have ancient roots in their own cultures, and others that have emerged recently. This includes swaraj in India, an approach towards autonomy that also encompasses responsibility towards the well-being of others. Extending this to all of nature, the concept of ecoswaraj entails a ‘radical ecological democracy’ combining political, economic, cultural, social and ecological transformations based on a core of ethical values such as diversity, solidarity, interconnectedness, equality and non-violence. While approaches such as swaraj (and from other parts of the world, buen vivir, ubuntu, etc.) have elements in common with degrowth (including many of the core values), there are also significant differences emanating from their being rooted in the struggles against marginalisation and their integration of the material with the spiritual or ethical. Advocates of degrowth and those of ecoswaraj and other diverse notions of well-being across the world need to build on the commonalities while respecting the differences and collaborate both on resisting the powers of domination and exploitation and on answering the key questions facing all of humanity.
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