Breaking ‘the growth spell’: Sustainable marketing after growth realism
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Drawing on Mark Fisher’s concept of capitalist realism, this paper introduces and develops the notion of ‘growth realism’ as an ideological enclosure that suppresses alternative post-growth imaginaries. I argue that growth realism does not simply promote the belief that endless economic expansion is necessary, desirable, and inevitable – it actively constrains radical thought and action in sustainable marketing and consumer research by foreclosing alternatives before they can be articulated. In response, I position degrowth discourse not just as an alternative, but as a rupture with this hegemonic ideology – one that exposes the contradictions of growth realism, unsettles its grip on economic imaginaries, and reconfigures the boundaries of what is politically and culturally possible.
Source: Marketing Theory
Author: Javier Lloveras
Institution: Universidade de Vigo
Language: English
Topic: Economic and Social Issues
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409518460