Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi

An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science

The Annals is a forum for the free exchange of ideas
among scholars working in the field of social sciences
Volume LIV 1 - 2020

Degrowth and the Paradoxes of Happiness

Serge Latouche,
pp. 133-152
10.26331/1103,
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ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the movement of reduction and involution of happiness that started in the Age of Enlightenment and continues today: from the emergence of the idea of happiness to the reduction to its economic definition (GDP per capita), then from the criticism of wealth indicators to the rediscovery of the goal of buen vivir, of “frugal affluence”, of joyful sobriety, in the context of “prosperity without growth”.