Resource shifting: Resourcification and de-resourcification for degrowth

Abstract

Resources are a core concept in debates about socio-ecological transformations and post-growth societies, but as a concept they are rarely problematised. Drawing on a resourcification approach in which resources are understood as outcomes of various social processes, this study analyses how resources are conceptualised and understood in degrowth scholarship. Our study shows that resources are seen in two interlinked ways, first as a critique of the environmental and social costs of current resourcification practices (the becoming of resources), and second as a combination of transformative proposals calling for de-resourcification practices (the unbecoming of resources). By approaching degrowth in terms of a dynamics of resourcification and de-resourcification that we call resource shifting, we contribute to a problematisation of the concept of resource that opens new socio-ecological pathways to post-growth societies.