Abstract
Today, the ‘degrowth movement’ is actively developing in Germany. This movement aims to overcome the ‘imperial mode of living’ based on unlimited growth and to shift to the ‘solidary mode of living’ which is socially and ecologically just. In order to reach this goal, it is essential above all to consider what has driven the capitalist growth society in the direction where it is now. This involves the acknowledgement that the emergence of the capitalist growth society is closely related to a specific masculine subjectifying mode. While the ideal of an autonomous masculine subject characterized by the orientation towards growth and achievement dominates, the importance of many activities concerning those in need of care and nature is ignored or hidden from view. It is not unrelated to the fact that in Germany today, a “transnational care extractivism” is spreading as care responsibilities are increasingly taken on by migrant women rather than being distributed between men and women. While the crisis of social reproduction caused by the care deficit is leading to a new hierarchical gender relationship at the global level, not the democratization of gender relations through male participation in care, the discussion of ‘caring masculinities’ tries to explore new alternative masculinities that can overcome the existing masculine subjectifying mode by including care in the construction of masculinities. Thus, in the context of the degrowth movement, the discussion of caring masculinities could be a starting point for enabling forms of social, ecological and gender reproduction that are completely different from the imperial mode of living by placing care for humans and nature at the center.
Published Version
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