“Decroscience”: scientific research called for degrowth

Here are some new ideas for scientific research that are sure to surprise, or disturb, as they run counter to the majority thinking in laboratories. Publish fewer articles, attend fewer distant conferences accessible only by plane, write in French rather than English, favor low tech (reliable technologies, but less flashy than the latest fashionable breakthroughs), ban certain research, “drastically” transform the CNRS… This list of objectives paves the way for “decroscience,” a term coined in 2021 by biologist Jacques Testart and which is the title of this book by journalist Nicolas Chevassus-au-Louis. This portmanteau word designates the application of the principles of economic degrowth to the world of research.

The author is careful not to present this reform abruptly, which he knows is not consensual. He therefore proceeds gradually, with the reminder of an enlightening historical coincidence. In 1972, the famous Meadows report on the limits of economic growth was published, which warned of the risks of continuing to move forward. The same year, the famous mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck provoked his colleagues with a conference entitled "Are we going to continue scientific research?", which is consistent with his resignation, two years earlier, from the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies, to become one of the first activists of political ecology.

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