Barca, S. (2026): “Degrowth and Labor: The Human Cost of the Great Acceleration in Postwar Italy”, in Environmental History, Vol, 31, nº 1, 2026, p. 150-156.

The politics of “degrowth” has been generally seen as being at odds with the politics of “labor” and redistribution; this has generated an intense debate between ecosocialist and degrowth scholars, mostly focusing on theoretical and political aspects. While degrowth advocates tend to see waged work as a source of ecological degradation, to be reduced as much as possible, ecomarxists—especially those adhering to ecomodernist views—tend to see waged work as a necessary means to human wellbeing, whose environmental impact can be reduced via technical innovation and democratic planning. My contribution to this forum brings in the historical dimension of the relationship between the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and working-class people, considering both workers in factory jobs and unpaid domestic workers (once defined as “housewives”). My aim is to show how the environmental history of labor can contribute to expanding the degrowth perspective by accounting for the social costs of GDP growth as experienced by working-class people in industrial economies and the ways in which they have responded