S03E30 - Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

Kohei Saito and Matt Huber discuss degrowth communism, socialist ecomodernism and their respective views on growth, natural limits, technology and progress.

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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

https://www.democratic-planning.com/

Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.

https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1

Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

https://www.indep.network/

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

https://www.planningresearch.net/

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Shownotes

Kohei Saito at University of Tokyo:

https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_04217.html

Saito is chair of the “Beyond Capitalism: War Economy and Democratic Planning” Program at The New Institute:

https://thenew.institute/en/programs/beyond-capitalism-war-economy-and-democratic-planning

Matt Huber at Syracuse University:

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/directory/matthew-t-huber

Saito, K. (2024). Slow Down: How Degrowth Communism can save the Earth. W&N.

https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/kohei-saito/slow-down/9781399612999/

Saito, K. (2023). Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Cambridge University Press.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/marx-in-the-anthropocene/D58765916F0CB624FCCBB61F50879376

Saito, K. (2017). Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy. Monthly Review Press.

https://monthlyreview.org/product/karl_marxs_ecosocialism/

Huber, M. T. (2022). Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/775-climate-change-as-class-war?srsltid=AfmBOop0wE8Ljdd-lZjDF-9-RZ_QvjRz2f3EobOv3AYEVpcqMDssRUd9

Huber, M. T. (2013). Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital. University of Minnesota Press.

https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816677856/lifeblood/

Matt Huber’s and Leigh Philipps’s review of Saito’s recent work:

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/kohei-saito-degrowth-communism-environment-marxism

on Huber’s critique of degrowth:

https://jac