Steady-State Economy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

There is now plenty of evidence that economic growth is highly problematic for human welfare and survival. The evidence comes from three domains. 1) The ecological: continual growth uses up the resources that supply and the sinks that take the waste from human activity globally. 2) The social: economic growth does not correlate well with human welfare and its supposed benefits, rather than being shared, become ever more concentrated at the top of the wealth and income pyramid. 3) The economic: economic systems that rely on perpetual growth are inherently unstable, and meet internal and external constraints (or contradictions) that undermine them.
While it may be clear that the wager on endless growth is a bad one, a more difficult question arises: “what would be the characteristics of an economy that does not grow?”.
In his book “Macroeconomics Without Growth1” Steffen Lange attempts to construct a framework for answering this question, rooted in the three main approaches to theorising the economy, hence the subtitle: “Sustainable Economies in Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxian Theories”. The book is a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of degrowth and provides a solid grounding for interventions in the policy arena, including those by political parties that seek to construct a coherent alternative, rather than a mishmash wish list of proposals. A strength of the book is its rigorous, formal analysis of the main theoretical approaches and what they say about the preconditions for growth, and the possibilities of zero growth.
As such the book extends to 583 pages, and the detail, with recourse to mathematical formulae to capture the various models and sub-models, will mean that many will not read it. The aim of this essay review, then, is to summarise the book, emphasising the synthesis reached by Lange, and suggesting a few issues that arise.

- by
- •
- Ecological Economics, DeGrowth, Steady-State Economy, Socio-economic paradigms

The Manchester collective, “Steady State Manchester” has been working for the last three years on the idea of a post-growth economy. This proceeds from the understanding that aggregate growth of the economy is deeply problematic, ecologically, socially and indeed, in its own terms, economically. We have focussed on its implications at the municipal and regional levels, emphasising re-localisation (in the context of “globalisation gone mad”), redistribution and equality, the money-debt-credit-investment system, and how to assess the well-being of the community without reliance on the crude economistic measures of GDP and GVA growth. This short chapter describes our work and the opportunities and barriers it meets.

Published in New Political Economy

- by gareth dale
- •
- Marxism, Ecological Economics, John Stuart Mill, Steady-State Economy

The book examines frugality as an ideal and an ‘art de vivre’ which implies a low level of material consumption and a simple lifestyle, to open the mind for spiritual goods as inner freedom, social peace and justice or the quest for God or ‘ultimate reality’. By rational choice we can develop a more frugal and sufficient way of life, but material temptations can always overwrite our ecological, social and ethical considerations. But the spiritual case for frugality is strong enough. Spiritually based frugal practices may lead to rational outcomes such as reducing ecological destruction, social disintegration and the exploitation of future generations

Scholars and activists mobilize increasingly the term degrowth when producing knowledge critical of the ideology and costs of growth-based development. Degrowth signals a radical political and economic reorganization leading to reduced resource and energy use. The degrowth hypothesis posits that such a trajectory of social transformation is necessary, desirable, and possible ; the conditions of its realization require additional study. Research on degrowth has reinvigorated the limits to growth debate with critical examination of the historical, cultural, social, and political forces that have made economic growth a dominant objective. Here we review studies of economic stability in the absence of growth and of societies that have managed well without growth. We reflect on forms of technology and democracy compatible with degrowth and discuss plausible openings for a degrowth transition. This dynamic and productive research agenda asks inconvenient questions that sustainability sciences can no longer afford to ignore.

- by Giorgos Kallis and +1
- •
- Ecological Economics, Peer-to-Peer, Direct Democracy, DeGrowth
- by Felix Wilmsen
- •
- Ecological Economics, Capitalism, Critical Geography, DeGrowth

Ecological economists accept that the global population cannot grow forever. But papers discussing the relevance of population growth and the prospects for minimising it are rare in the literature on ecological economics. Even these papers treat population almost exclusively as an issue relating to the scale of human activity. The many ways in which population growth rate and local demographic pressures drive negative social and environmental trends remain largely unarticulated. The mistaken belief that action to reduce population growth requires involuntary control of people's reproduction has fostered a taboo on the topic and deterred analysis of demographic influences on issues such as inequality, unemployment, debt, social cohesion and conflict. This paper discusses how some of these influences relate to ecological economics discourses on natural resources, labour, capital and governance. It argues that population stabilisation is not only ultimately required for a steady state economy, but can be a powerful lever in a virtuous cycle of effects diminishing resource consumption and environmental impacts, reversing income inequality and undermining the leverage enjoyed by capital over labour. A richer, more integrated treatment of population dynamics would greatly enhance the ecological economics research agenda in the coming decades.

- by Troy Vettese
- •
- Ecological Economics, Steady-State Economy, Population Studies
- by S. Sorrell
- •
- Energy Economics, Economic Growth, Environmental Sustainability, Steady-State Economy

This chapter shows why environmental and economic sustainability is now an important issue and then outlines a general classification of natural resources and demonstrates the importance of this classification for analyzing the sustainability of natural resource use. The way in which economies are organized or managed has important implications for the sustainability of the use of natural resources, the preservation of natural environments, the conservation of living organisms and ultimately, the sustainability of economic activities. Deficiencies are likely to occur in the sustainable management of economies when adverse externalities occur, commodities have attributes associated with public goods (or bads), when there is open-access to resources, and when there is "excessive" discounting of future economic benefits from alternative economic choices. As already pointed out (for example, in Chaps. 3 and 4), these factors can result in greater economic scarcity than need be and they can reduce economic and environmental sustainability. Their significance in relation to environmental and economic sustainability is stressed in this chapter. Such factors have important influences on the occurrence of environmental and economic sustainability at the local and micro-level as well as at the macro- or aggregate level. The last portion of this chapter examines macroeconomic aspects of sustainable development.

- by Clement Tisdell
- •
- Economics, Environmental Economics, Natural Resources, Sustainable Development

In recent years the concept of economic de-growth (decroissance) based on the literature of Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen e.g. 1, 2 and 3 has found a revival in France, Italy, Spain and other countries, in the popular as well as in the academic literature. Therein authors took on board Georgescu-Roegens' categorical rejection of a steady-state economy (SSE), as proposed by Herman Daly [4]. They argue that economic de-growth is the only viable alternative goal to the growing economy. This position is challenged in this article and it is concluded that the two concepts are in fact complements. Economic de-growth is not a goal in itself, but the rich North's path towards a globally equitable SSE. Moreover the de-growth literature can benefit from the strong economic historic roots of the SSE and from Daly's macroeconomic concepts, while in return being able to give lessons about bottom-up approaches. This would be particularly important for the population issue, where Daly proposes limited birth licences. Unfortunately statements on demography are inconsistent and underdeveloped in the de-growth literature. Further it is concluded that most criticisms of the SSE are due to a too narrow and technocratic interpretation of the concept. Instead the SSE should be defined as a quasi steady-state, resting in a dynamic equilibrium and as an “unattainable goal”, which can and probably should be approximated.

The proposed capitalist solutions for the ecological crisis have proven to be contradictory in that they are conducted within a system that prioritizes profit and accumulation over the health of the environment. Through its so-called ‘sustainable’ approaches which seek to reduce carbon emissions, it is evident that these tactics are merely ways to avoid directly addressing the primary issue itself, which is the capitalist system. Solutions within ‘green capitalism’ such as zero population growth, technological advances, and ‘green’ energy sources are evidently contradictory to environmentalism when under a capitalist framework. Although solutions like zero population growth and technological advances can be useful within a socialist framework, the inherent characteristics of capitalism will make these solutions impossible to effectively implement. The capitalist framework is inherently harmful to the environment, which means the ecological movement is inherently anti-capitalist. Capital accumulation and growth is dependent on inequalities, imperial destructions and environmental devastation. In other words, capitalism is built on exploitation, and it will try and destroy anything that comes in its way of endless accumulation. Thus, the only possible solution to this crisis which is capable of entirely shifting this exploitative system is one which is built on a socialist economy. Socialism addresses the importance of including Indigenous communities within the discourse of the ecological socialist movement in that it can provide guidance towards our communal cultural shift towards less energy-consumption. This cultural shift will allow us to implement a socialist economy which prioritizes the basic needs of all people as well as mutual cooperation over competition. Overall, so long as we remain under this capitalist system, we will not be capable of implementing an environmental plan that can properly address the current and urgent ecological crisis. Socialism provides us with alternative thoughts and perspectives (i.e. Indigenous perspectives, class-consciousness, recognition of over-consumption etc.) necessary to reach a cultural shift focused on the reduction of consumption that will allow us to acquire an effective solution to the current ecological crisis at hand.

- by MASA HAMWI
- •
- Working Class Consciousness, Capitalism, Socialism, Environmentalism

A small benefit of the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic has been the temporary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, this paper asks: what strategies can return people to work without returning to the old high-emissions economy? How can we modify the old economic system to reduce environmental impacts while rebuilding employment? Technological change, such as replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, is necessary but, in an economy that's growing, unlikely to be sufficiently rapid to avoid dangerous climate change. Degrowth in physical consumption, especially by the 'rich' 10%, towards a steadystate economy, is needed as well as low-carbon jobs.

- by Mark Diesendorf
- •
- Renewable Energy, Environmental Sustainability, DeGrowth, Steady-State Economy
- by James A Fraser
- •
- Human Ecology, Soil Science, Anthropology, Horticulture

‘The World's First ‘Green’ Political Party’ with Dr Geoff Holloway.
The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is globally recognised as the first ‘green’ values political party, formed by outraged community members in 1972 to counter the environmental and social injustice that was the flooding of Lake Pedder. Dr Geoff Holloway has been an activist within the UTG for years. This episode discusses the UTG, various Lake Pedder action groups, ecocentrism, tourism and of course, Lake Pedder 🌿
Listen here now or on Spotify 👉🏽 https://pedderunplugged.buzzsprout.com

- by Geoff Holloway
- •
- Environmentalism, Steady-State Economy, Green Politics, Ecocentrism

Why is there societal aversion to slow or no growth, and
positive antipathy towards the thought of contracting economic activity?
At one level the answer is simple: we live in the growth society,
one predicated culturally, politically, economically, financially and
technologically on perpetual exponential growth. This means that any
deviation from this upward movement is portrayed negatively: as a slow-down, stagnation, worse still a recession, or heaven help us, a
depression. This essay, however, attempts to offer a more detailed
diagnosis of the agitated condition. It examines both the system of ideas
that justify the belief in the goodness of economic growth and the diverse
movement of growthers united by their fervent devotion to the pro-growth cause.
It takes an innovative approach, in that it contextualises
the last 70 years of the mystique of growth within the wider setting of the
last 70,000 years of the history of Homo-sapiens since it experienced its
Cognitive Revolution. The essay comes to a intriguing conclusion: that a
rock-bottom explanation of why growth is thought to be good and what
motivates growthers to be so passionate, is provided once one grasps the
essential nature of the deeply flawed species which is Homo-sapiens: creative, paranoid, invasive, expansionary and cursed by a fervent devotion to belief
systems.

- by Brendan Sheehan
- •
- Economics, Institutional Economics, Green Economics, Political Economy

It is easy to be critical. We are critical of the way in which our city and regional leaders have generally tackled the difficult problem of economic, social and environmental viability. We see their approach as based on a fundamentally flawed model that puts the economy first and attempts to restore economic growth to our post-industrial city region in the context of a competitive global order. No doubt this is motivated by concern for the people of the city region, their livelihoods and the future of them and their children, but we question whether the strategies will lead to improvements in overall social, economic and environmental well-being. “So what would you do? What options would you back? What priorities would you set?”. These are fair questions. Previously we have set out ideas1, and we'll return to some of these, but we must admit that it is not easy to produce an alternative analysis and strategy that is coherent, convincing, realistic and practical. Well, someone has to do it, so this piece tries to do just that.
First we'll define the problem, because the way the problem is defined sets the path for any solutions – get that wrong and it is hard to turn off and find the right direction. Secondly we look at some of the approaches on offer: the official Treasury/GMCA2 model, the same model with some tweaks for inclusion and environmental benefit, and the radical reformist approaches of CRESC and CLES. Finally we make a selection from those ideas and add in some others that we think are missing to sketch the basis for a more convincing alternative strategic approach to economy, society and environment.
This paper is about Greater Manchester (and is relevant to GMCA's “strategy refresh” and to the Greater Manchester People's Plan initiative3), but the thinking should also be relevant to many other city regions.

- by Mark Burton
- •
- Ecological Economics, DeGrowth, Manchester, Steady-State Economy