Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the notion of living “happily ever after” as it relates to a degrowth context. Living happily ever after is an appealing trope, associated with wealth, opportunities, and infinite growth. Yet this is a problematic framing of the future in light of the already irreversible effects of climate change directly associated with the “infinite” growth of neoliberal capitalism. It also contradicts the radically altered society which degrowth envisions – that of green living and social transformation. I look at whether or not it is possible for degrowth-based charities to imagine a new “happily ever after” future in line with degrowth’s radical tenets. I do so by examining the widely popularized “happily ever after” endings in Disney princess films over time, noting how these endings gradually came to reflect neoliberal changes to capitalism and philanthropy in the West. I then turn to WildLands, a South African degrowth-based charity, to examine the kind of “happily ever after” it sells to its donors through its advertising. WildLands’ language and projects both contradict its overarching goals of achieving sustainable societies, instead reinforcing capitalist ideologies to present a neoliberalized “happily ever after” future to its donors. Such analysis is important to understanding climate change mitigation strategies because the discourse that frames the future reflects internalized ideas of what constitutes living “happily ever after”. It is essential not only to achieving a “greener” world, but also to understanding the external and internal barriers environmental charities face in trying to achieve radical change.