<i>Music, Ecologies and Degrowth. A Few Paths to Explore</i>

Abstract The climate crisis compels us to rethink the future. It is important to do so with the knowledge that environmental problems are also social problems (social inequality) and mental problems (increase in mental disorders). We can, therefore, broaden the notion of ecology by thinking in terms of ‘three ecological registers’: 1 the environmental, the social, and the mental. Rethinking the future requires a theory capable of working across these three registers. The concept of ‘degrowth’, which is developing into an important paradigm, 2 proposes such a theory. As a means of attaining a post-growth society (rather than as an end in itself), degrowth poses the question of limits. 3 This requires a questioning of the dominant model of the homo economicus in order to promote other values: care, sharing, autonomy, or free time. Art is one of these values. We will deal here with a general introduction to these questions and with two musical examples: the first, taken from orchestral music, is Dmitri Kourliandski; the other, dealing with musical technology, is Agostino Di Scipio.