The book offers a concise, clear and systematic synthesis of the concept of degrowth, arguing that capitalist economies are structurally and politically dependent on growth, yet destabilized by the very pressures and consequences that this dependence generates.

Degrowth calls confronting underdevelopment and overdevelopment; extreme poverty alongside extreme wealth; and needed growth alongside needed degrowth.

Gerber argues that we need to challenge the very concept of growthism and looks to intellectual and political traditions from the global South that resonate with core degrowth principles.