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In a wider sense, which includes nature, dépense indicates that share of energy which cannot be employed by living organisms, owing to their physiological limits. This portion continues to circulate aimlessly in the environment up until the point where it extinguishes itself. From an anthropological framework, energy could be redefined as the fuel of action, that is, the fuel that calls us to act. The portion of energy that a living being employs for either sustenance or biological growth, Bataille terms “servile.” In fact, mere biological sustenance can be achieved spending only a miniscule portion of the total amount of available energy. The basic problem relates to the residual energy that exceeds the share devoted to such servile use. Excess energy requires a “sovereign” use: it is necessary to choose a destination for the fuel of action on the basis of the philosophical intent of a political prospect. It is the sovereign employment of excess energy that qualifies us as “humans.” Dépense is a key concept, then, for theorizing a way out of the growth society.

In a wider sense, which includes nature, dépense indicates that share of energy which cannot be employed by living organisms, owing to their physiological limits. This portion continues to circulate aimlessly in the environment up until the point where it extinguishes itself. From an anthropological framework, energy could be redefined as the fuel of action, that is, the fuel that calls us to act. The portion of energy that a living being employs for either sustenance or biological growth, Bataille terms “servile.” In fact, mere biological sustenance can be achieved spending only a miniscule portion of the total amount of available energy. The basic problem relates to the residual energy that exceeds the share devoted to such servile use. Excess energy requires a “sovereign” use: it is necessary to choose a destination for the fuel of action on the basis of the philosophical intent of a political prospect. It is the sovereign employment of excess energy that qualifies us as “humans.” Dépense is a key concept, then, for theorizing a way out of the growth society.

In a wider sense, which includes nature, dépense indicates that share of energy which cannot be employed by living organisms, owing to their physiological limits. This portion continues to circulate aimlessly in the environment up until the point where it extinguishes itself. From an anthropological framework, energy could be redefined as the fuel of action, that is, the fuel that calls us to act. The portion of energy that a living being employs for either sustenance or biological growth, Bataille terms “servile.” In fact, mere biological sustenance can be achieved spending only a miniscule portion of the total amount of available energy. The basic problem relates to the residual energy that exceeds the share devoted to such servile use. Excess energy requires a “sovereign” use: it is necessary to choose a destination for the fuel of action on the basis of the philosophical intent of a political prospect. It is the sovereign employment of excess energy that qualifies us as “humans.” Dépense is a key concept, then, for theorizing a way out of the growth society.

In a wider sense, which includes nature, dépense indicates that share of energy which cannot be employed by living organisms, owing to their physiological limits. This portion continues to circulate aimlessly in the environment up until the point where it extinguishes itself. From an anthropological framework, energy could be redefined as the fuel of action, that is, the fuel that calls us to act. The portion of energy that a living being employs for either sustenance or biological growth, Bataille terms “servile.” In fact, mere biological sustenance can be achieved spending only a miniscule portion of the total amount of available energy. The basic problem relates to the residual energy that exceeds the share devoted to such servile use. Excess energy requires a “sovereign” use: it is necessary to choose a destination for the fuel of action on the basis of the philosophical intent of a political prospect. It is the sovereign employment of excess energy that qualifies us as “humans.” Dépense is a key concept, then, for theorizing a way out of the growth society.

Degrowth has been launched into the political arena by activists and intellectuals as a project advocating the democratically-led shrinking of production and consumption with the aim of achieving social justice and ecological sustainability. This overview of degrowth offers to the English speaking-world a comprehensive coverage of the main topics and major challenges of degrowth in a succinct, simple and accessible manner. In addition, it offers a set of keywords useful for intervening in current political debates and fro bringing about concrete degrowth-inspired proposals at different levels - local, national and global. The result is be the most comprehensive coverage of the topic of degrowth in English and serves as the definitive international reference.

la notion de dépense désigne une part d’énergie qui ne peut être utilisée par des organismes vivants en raison de leurs limites physiologiques. Cette portion d’énergie circule sans but dans l’environnement, jusqu’à ce elle finissent par s’éteindre. Dans une perspective anthropologique, l’énergie pourrait être redéfinie comme le carburant de l’action, ce qui nous pousse à agir. Bataille appelle « servile » la portion d’énergie qu’un être humain utilise pour sa subsistance ou pour sa croissance biologique. Le coeur du problème réside dans l’énergie excédentaire, une fois consommée la part dévolue à cet usage servile. L’excédent d’énergie exige un usage « souverain » : il faut décider de l’usage de ce carburant de l’action, en considérant le contenu philosophique du projet politique qui le définira. La notion de dépense est primordiale pour théoriser une sortie de la société de croissance.

El consumo de energía consiste de dos partes. La primera es necesaria para la conservación y la reproducción de la vida. La segunda es utilizada para gastos no productivos: lujo, duelo, guerra, religión, espectáculos, las artes, actividades sexuales perversas. En total, todas estas actividades —definidas como dépense— son fines en sí mismos. Toda sociedad tiene un exceso de energía, definida precisamente como toda aquella energía que no es necesaria para la simple reproducción de la vida. El concepto de dépense ayuda a identificar un hueco fundamental en la «sociedad del crecimiento»

Georges Bataille ha costruito il suo percorso intellettuale al di fuori dell’accademia e di ogni argine disciplinare. Scrittore, romanziere, saggista, filosofo, antropologo, sociologo, economista ecc., non si contano i codici espressivi ch’egli ha utilizzato per esplorare le ossessioni generate da una vita vissuta a costante contatto con la morte e la malattia. Nel saggio che introduce alla lettura di brani scelti dell'autore francese, Onofrio Romano non tace i numerosi punti di non-contatto fra Bataille e il pensiero della decroissance (decrescita), cogliendone, non di meno, i parallelismi rispetto al concetto batalliano di dépense (dispendio). La sua opera costituisce infatti uno dei tentativi più coerenti e radicali di smascherare l’insostenibilità di un consorzio umano fondato sulla riduzione delle cose e delle persone alla loro funzione produttiva (servile), nonché il territorio teorico che ha offerto maggiore spazio alla questione del sacro, ovverosia alle pratiche sociali di sottrazione degli enti al loro statuto utilitario.

The book explores the concept of degrowth, beginning from a basic assumption, not of resource depletion, as is common in most literature in the field, but rather from a state of abundance, arguing that there is a vast amount of energy on the planet waiting to be utilized by all its inhabitants. Adopting a sociological approach, Onofrio Romano argues that the growth momentum is not simply a broadly shared “value,” but the physiological outcome of a specific institutional frame. The problem is that in its mainstream formulation the degrowth alternative shares with the growth-led regime some basic anthropological, political, and institutional pillars. In order to build a real alternative, Romano suggests reviewing degrowth in the light of the dépense notion by Georges Bataille. According to Bataille, our societies have no problem with acknowledging scarcity, but with dealing with the surplus energy that calls us to act for a qualified life. So, in order to erase the growth obsession, we have to ward off the “servile” dimension, i.e., the utilitarian activities needed for the mere reproduction of life, to regain sovereignty, as reflected in the de-thinking subject. Innovative and provocative, Towards a Society of Degrowth will be of great interest to students and scholars of degrowth, sociology, social anthropology, political ecology, and ecological economics.