Less is Not Enough: Minimalist Desires and Postgrowth Politics, with Miriam Meissner, Dom Davies, and Postgrowth Planning at UCL Bartlett

From decluttering bedroom drawers to detoxing from social media, minimalism has taken the global affluent class by storm. But what are the cultural politics of minimalist practices? Are they just an online trend or do they foster deeper desires that might be mobilised in the pursuit of a just world after capitalist growthism? And is It possible to speak of Marie Kondo as an organic intellectual of the globally affluent?

This episode presents an event hosted by the UCL Bartlett’s Postgrowth Planning Group to celebrate the publication of Miriam Meissner’s new book, Less is Not Enough: Minimalist Desires and Postgrowth Politics. Trends like decluttering and mindfulness depoliticise middle-class frustrations with capitalist exploitation. Through a critical analysis of self-help books, TV shows, and online communities, Less Is Not Enough argues that while minimalism is often a distraction from the root causes of the very problems it seeks to alleviate, it also contains the seeds of a more radical cultural politics that might build popular consent for postgrowth planning strategies.

The event was organised and introduced by Dan Durrant, Associate Professor in Infrastructure Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning. Miriam Meissner is Assistant Professor of Culture and Political Ecology at Maastricht University and currently Visiting Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities at the Royal College of Art, London. She was in discussion with Dom Davies, Reader in English at City St George’s, University of London, and convener of the Thinking Through Infrastructure Network.

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