Academic year 2025-2026
Less is More: short summary
Chapter 1: Capitalism – a creation story
Anthropocene vs Capitalocene
• Anthropocene: geological era where humans shape the planet
• Capitalocene: capitalism drives ecological crisis
o Focus on economic systems rather than humanity as a whole.
End of Feudalism
• Feudalism ended through revolts and labour shortages (Black Death)
o Thus: more power
• Commoners built cooperative, self-sufficient communities
• Wellbeing and ecological balance improved
• Peasants worked only to meet their needs
o -> quiet quitting-similarity?
Elite Counterattack
• Elites used repression and land theft (enclosure of commons)
o Common land was privatized
o Peasants lost access to resources
• Workers became dependent on wages
Colonisation and Enclosure
• Both involved dispossession and control
• Colonisation extended enclosure globally
• Growth relied on exploitation of land and people
Effects of Colonisation
• Environmental damage through extraction
• Deforestation and resource depletion
• Indigenous peoples faced slavery, displacement, and famine (= hongersnood)
Locke and Artificial Scarcity
• Locke justified enclosure through productivity
o Modern growth arguments use similar logic
• Capitalism creates scarcity to enable profit
• Lauderdale paradox = private wealth grows by reducing public wealth
Dualism
• Nature became viewed as separate from humans (↔ animism: humans as part of nature)
• Church protected authority, capitalists justified exploitation of nature
• Influenced by Plato, Christianity, Bacon, and Descartes
o Mind separated from matter
Free University of Brussels 1
, Academic year 2025-2026
• Became dominant during the Enlightenment
Labour as Raw Material
• Bodies seen as machines (≠ mind)
o -> justification for disciplining bodies and turning labour into something productive
• Labour became a commodity
• Helped discipline workers for capitalist production
Dualism Today
• Nature is still treated as a resource
• Language reflects separation from nature (e.g. “environment” -> around us)
• Influences capitalism, science, and ecological attitudes
Chapter 2: Rise of the juggernaut
Growth, Fossil Fuels & Technology
• Growth was enabled by technology and fossil fuels
• The main driver of capitalism is capital accumulation
Use-Value vs Exchange-Value
• Use-value satisfies human needs
• Exchange-value focuses on profit
The Growth Machine
• CEOs operate under pressure from investors: if they can’t pay interests, investors move
their money somewhere else
o Companies must keep growing
Capitalist 'Fixes'
• Fixes overcome barriers to growth (= temporary solution)
o Examples: enclosure, colonisation, slave trade
o Modern example: deforestation, funding climate denial, …
• Required because of compound growth which causes the system to bounce on boundaries
(social/ecological/…) -> if growth stops, the system collapse
GDP
• Created during the Great Depression
o Government wanted to know what was going wrong
• Measures economic activity, not wellbeing (misleading!)
o Growing own food, cleaning the house, …
• Became the main indicator after WW II
o Later: GDP growth for its own sake
Neoliberal Globalisation
• Response to slower growth in the 1970s
• Deregulation, privatisation, weaker labour protections and global trade expanded profits
Free University of Brussels 2
Less is More: short summary
Chapter 1: Capitalism – a creation story
Anthropocene vs Capitalocene
• Anthropocene: geological era where humans shape the planet
• Capitalocene: capitalism drives ecological crisis
o Focus on economic systems rather than humanity as a whole.
End of Feudalism
• Feudalism ended through revolts and labour shortages (Black Death)
o Thus: more power
• Commoners built cooperative, self-sufficient communities
• Wellbeing and ecological balance improved
• Peasants worked only to meet their needs
o -> quiet quitting-similarity?
Elite Counterattack
• Elites used repression and land theft (enclosure of commons)
o Common land was privatized
o Peasants lost access to resources
• Workers became dependent on wages
Colonisation and Enclosure
• Both involved dispossession and control
• Colonisation extended enclosure globally
• Growth relied on exploitation of land and people
Effects of Colonisation
• Environmental damage through extraction
• Deforestation and resource depletion
• Indigenous peoples faced slavery, displacement, and famine (= hongersnood)
Locke and Artificial Scarcity
• Locke justified enclosure through productivity
o Modern growth arguments use similar logic
• Capitalism creates scarcity to enable profit
• Lauderdale paradox = private wealth grows by reducing public wealth
Dualism
• Nature became viewed as separate from humans (↔ animism: humans as part of nature)
• Church protected authority, capitalists justified exploitation of nature
• Influenced by Plato, Christianity, Bacon, and Descartes
o Mind separated from matter
Free University of Brussels 1
, Academic year 2025-2026
• Became dominant during the Enlightenment
Labour as Raw Material
• Bodies seen as machines (≠ mind)
o -> justification for disciplining bodies and turning labour into something productive
• Labour became a commodity
• Helped discipline workers for capitalist production
Dualism Today
• Nature is still treated as a resource
• Language reflects separation from nature (e.g. “environment” -> around us)
• Influences capitalism, science, and ecological attitudes
Chapter 2: Rise of the juggernaut
Growth, Fossil Fuels & Technology
• Growth was enabled by technology and fossil fuels
• The main driver of capitalism is capital accumulation
Use-Value vs Exchange-Value
• Use-value satisfies human needs
• Exchange-value focuses on profit
The Growth Machine
• CEOs operate under pressure from investors: if they can’t pay interests, investors move
their money somewhere else
o Companies must keep growing
Capitalist 'Fixes'
• Fixes overcome barriers to growth (= temporary solution)
o Examples: enclosure, colonisation, slave trade
o Modern example: deforestation, funding climate denial, …
• Required because of compound growth which causes the system to bounce on boundaries
(social/ecological/…) -> if growth stops, the system collapse
GDP
• Created during the Great Depression
o Government wanted to know what was going wrong
• Measures economic activity, not wellbeing (misleading!)
o Growing own food, cleaning the house, …
• Became the main indicator after WW II
o Later: GDP growth for its own sake
Neoliberal Globalisation
• Response to slower growth in the 1970s
• Deregulation, privatisation, weaker labour protections and global trade expanded profits
Free University of Brussels 2
