Jason Hickel

A political economist who challenges the foundations of modern capitalism, Jason Hickel has become one of the most influential voices shaping global debates on inequality, climate breakdown and the future of economic growth. An ICREA Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science & Technology and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Hickel’s work asks why a world producing unprecedented wealth still leaves billions without basic needs while pushing planetary systems towards collapse.

Known for his bestselling books, The Divide and Less is More, Jason Hickel argues that the crises of inequality and climate change are not separate problems, but symptoms of the same economic model. His research explores how global systems of trade, debt and resource extraction continue to channel wealth from the Global South to the richest nations, often echoing patterns established during colonialism. In one of his widely discussed studies, he examined how structural adjustment policies forced African nations to reduce domestic consumption while surplus resources flowed outward to the global economy “effectively for free”.

Hickel is particularly recognised for bringing the concept of “degrowth” into mainstream public discourse. Rather than advocating austerity, he argues for planned reductions in excessive energy and resource use in wealthy economies while expanding access to healthcare, housing, transport and public services. His work frequently challenges the assumption that endless economic growth is compatible with ecological survival, warning that “green growth” models often preserve systems of overconsumption and global inequality under a sustainable veneer.

Earlier in his career, Jason Hickel focused on labour movements, anti-colonial politics and moral order in South Africa, experiences that continue to shape his critique of global power structures today. Across his writing and lectures, he often connects contemporary economic crises to longer histories of empire, extraction and political domination. Themes that have made him both highly influential and deeply debated across academic and political circles.