Jason Hickel, a leading anthropologist and a key theorist of the global de-growth movement, gives the GRIP Annual Lecture 2025 at the University of Bergen. In this lecture, he presents his exciting new work on global inequality. How exactly do dynamics of capital accumulation and unequal exchange in the contemporary world actively prevent development in the global South? How and why are billions of people subjected to needless deprivation? The lecture shows that if we are serious about development in the 21st century this will require clear-eyed strategies and strong movements for achieving economic sovereignty. There is no alternative for delinking from the neo-imperial centers of capital and for implementing eco-socialist policies that will then become possible.

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