POST GROWTH TOOLKIT

Internal Growth


Interview with Valerie Olson

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Video transcript: "I think there is a prejudice or a bias toward thinking about growth externally. So, within the fetishization of growth through the idea that growth means economies are good and well, there's this idea that growth is sort of externalized. You have to see growth, growth has to be measurable externally; growth is something that occurs outside and only when it's outside, and measurable, and quantifiable as sort-of the upward trend, is growth happening. And I think this provides an opportunity to take a moment to reflect on using other knowledges than western knowledges to think about internal growth, or internal transformation as being another valuable sort-of focus for energy, and for our energies. And part of what happens with the fetishization or externalization of growth, and this idea of internal growth as being meaningless or not something to be measured, creates a separation between the human organism and human internal processes of transformation and exterior forms. So you have other countries attempting to measure other things than growth, for example, happiness or other ways of of thinking about measuring some positive transformation, and that could be looked at as a way of looking at other kinds of measures of wellness and of connectedness other than exterior growth."


Other interviews with Valerie Olson

Related tags: Growth, Energy, Tactic, Decolonization,