Jason Hickel, a leading anthropologist and a key theorist of the global de-growth movement, gave the Annual GRIP Lecture 2025.
In his lecture, Jason Hickel presented his work on global inequality and explored the dynamics between capitalism, imperialism and eco-socialism.
In the lecture, he addressed critical questions about how the dynamics of capital accumulation and unequal exchange in the contemporary world actively hinder development in the Global South. He explored why and how billions of people are subjected to unnecessary deprivation. The lecture emphasized that genuine development in the 21st century demands strategies and robust movements aimed at achieving economic sovereignty. Jason Hickel argued that there is no alternative but to decouple from neo-imperial centers of capital and to implement eco-socialist policies.
Jason Hickel’s lecture was commented by Anwesha Dutta (Chr. Michelsen Institute) and Maria Dyveke Styve.
Jason Hickel
Jason Hickel (born in Eswatini) is professor at the Institute for Environmental Science & Technology (ICTA-UAB) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He serves on the Climate and Macroeconomics Roundtable of the US National Academy of Sciences, the advisory board of the Green New Deal for Europe, the Rodney Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice, and the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Health.
Jason’s research focuses on political economy, inequality, and ecological economics. His two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin, 2020; listed by the Financial Times and New Scientist as a book of the year). Jason’s ethnographic work focuses on colonialism, anti-colonial struggles and the labor movement in South Africa, which is the subject of his first book, Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa (University of California Press, 2015).
You can watch the recording of the event here: The struggle for development in the 21st century: capitalism, imperialism and eco-socialism – YouTube
The lecture was supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Bergen Global.