The timing could not be sweeter for a new paper—Post-growth: the science of wellbeing within planetary boundaries—from the leaders of post-growth thinking, providing an overview of the current research. With concerns rising that economic growth in high income nations is not sustainable, socially beneficial or even economically achievable, post-growth research is centred on replacing the goal of increasing GDP with the goal of improving human wellbeing within planetary boundaries.
To put this paper into context: Recent elections show a clear trend. When households face hardship under business-as-usual, people turn to bold leaders offering a hope-filled, radical shake-up of the status quo. Real estate and tech magnates present a narrative of economic success through deregulation while removing global competition, promising individual prosperity. Yet, while many thinkers agree that the current Western economic system has reached its peak and is in decline, concerns abound that a turnaround based on intensifying growth and individualism risks further division and environmental destruction.
Luckily, an alternative economic vision exists. The post-growth narrative challenges the pursuit of economic growth in wealthy nations, highlighting the environmental and social risks of growth and the economic limits of growth. The state of macroeconomic post-growth research is summarized eloquently in the paper by experts in its various sub-fields of degrowth, ecological economics, wellbeing economics and doughnut economics.
- Post-growth research studies the growth dependencies in the current economy that tie social welfare to increasing GDP. (Ever heard the claim that running hospitals relies on selling exports? Is that true? Is there another way?)
- It develops macroeconomic models that test policies for wellbeing without growth.
- It outlines the provisioning systems that would sufficiently enhance the ratio of wellbeing to resource use across societies.
- It has begun grappling with questions of transition, international trade, and geopolitical relations.
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Heliocene 