This article is focused upon the metaphor of growth, which underlies a specific idea of development. The author explains how, since a sociological classic such as "Social Change and History" by Robert Nisbet, the idea of development as growth has continued to be used notwithstanding the critiques addressed to this metaphor, the establishment of the paradigm of decrease, and the birth of a proper decrease movement. At the same time, the author maintains that this surviving idea of development as growth has been reconfigured through the use of adjectives that have actually modified the real sense of the metaphor, and that have as much as possible shortened the distance towards the perspective of a “different development”. Will the zero growth trends maintained by the theorists of a “different development” lead to the disappearance of the growth metaphor on the wake of the idea of a “happy degrowth”?
Il concetto di sviluppo e la metafora della crescita
ZOCCHI DEL TRECCO, Angela Maria
2013-01-01
Abstract
This article is focused upon the metaphor of growth, which underlies a specific idea of development. The author explains how, since a sociological classic such as "Social Change and History" by Robert Nisbet, the idea of development as growth has continued to be used notwithstanding the critiques addressed to this metaphor, the establishment of the paradigm of decrease, and the birth of a proper decrease movement. At the same time, the author maintains that this surviving idea of development as growth has been reconfigured through the use of adjectives that have actually modified the real sense of the metaphor, and that have as much as possible shortened the distance towards the perspective of a “different development”. Will the zero growth trends maintained by the theorists of a “different development” lead to the disappearance of the growth metaphor on the wake of the idea of a “happy degrowth”?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
