In Raphael et al (2024) the authors discuss very well how encompassing (Nordic) welfare states can both facilitate a transition to sustainable, post-growth societies, yet are also fundamentally challenged by such a transition. However, I emphasise room for better elaboration in terms of: 1. Emphasising the structural challenges induced by ‘the new politics of the welfare state’ rather than ascribing inequality to the privatisation of public services. 2. Better elaboration of the ‘synergy hypothesis’ from other literature on potential intersections between welfare regimes, varieties of capitalism, and sustainability transformations. 3. Discussing the specific economic, monetary and fiscal policies needed to aid societal transformations and abolish the growth dependencies of established welfare states.
Macro-economic policy should be evaluated and devised according to sustainability criteria alongside economic and social criteria. Economic goals, whether growth of GDP, productivity or competitiveness should not trump equity/justice or sustainability. But nor should environmental goals trump social goals. The urgent challenge addressed in this chapter is to develop a macroeconomic framework that supports ‘eco-social’ policies to pursue both goals simultaneously.
people’s lives without much idea of why or with what purpose in mind. The questions that were posed on page 1 thus stand but are far from being complete or conclusive. Furthermore, other chapters have had many additional questions to ask, both in terms of what we are doing and what we should be doing. Some readers will be unhappy with this. When thinking about the practicalities of policy, isn’t it futile for the questions to outnumber the answers? But eco-social policy debates are new and still far from the centre of both governmental and academic debates. It
satisfied with less, is that also related to some of these things? MK: This points in the same direction. Sustainable welfare is a particular field of study within the wider degrowth perspective. Green growth is not a viable alternative. We basically tried that for 30 years. Carbon emissions and other environmental ills have only increased in that time. While degrowth is about a far broader transformation of society, sustainable welfare specifically looks at the intersection of social welfare and environmental sustainability and the development of eco-social policies
, and promoting eco-social policies. Details of the rest are in the NEF’s report (Coote, 2015). Policy one: move toward shorter and more flexible hours of paid work With little or no economic growth, shorter hours of paid work per person is the surest way to achieve good jobs for all. Lack of growth means more unemployment unless jobs are restructured to spread hours of paid work more evenly across the working-age population. We therefore propose a slow but steady move, over a decade or so, from today’s official UK norm of 37.5 to 40 hours (varying according
61 three challenges for social policy1 Tony Fitzpatrick overview This chapter explores the principal challenges that all welfare systems face. It: • reviews the main criticisms of environmentalists towards existing social policies; • discusses the relationship between poverty and the environment; • examines some ‘environmental pioneers’; • investigates several global warming targets and strategies; • explores the broad parameters of a green economy; • outlines basic questions for an ‘eco-social policy’ agenda. Having explored the broad social dimensions of
discussed the potential of an ‘eco-social policy’ that integrates social and environmental concerns more coherently. One central concern that links scholars of global climate policy and social policy is that of justice (see Chapter 6, this volume). Environmental and social theorists think about justice in quite different ways, and there is some way to go in incorporating environmentalism into theories of global social justice. From the perspective of this chapter, the justice frame provides a powerful analytic tool, allowing the impacts of both climate change and
(see Chapters Four and Thirteen especially) but is largely addressed to audiences in the affluent West. The book reviews the main debates in a fashion that seems appropriate but also insists you see it as the start of a (hopefully) long conversation. This is because other publications in the Understanding Welfare series usually have a distinct literature on which to draw. This book, however, is more speculative. We cannot review ‘eco-social policies’ because there are few examples of such policies in existence. The agendas of environmental and social policy
those practices of resistance can be supported to articulate alternatives to the present. The discussion has focused on care and the environment as two linked aspects of our Commons, but social policies (or ‘eco-social policies’) are about more than this; they are also about social security, healthcare, social services and housing – our ‘Welfare Commons’. In their contribution to the Kilburn Manifesto – a series of essays on alternatives to neoliberalism 107 Towards the Welfare Commons – John Clarke and Janet Newman argue that we cannot go back to a mythical
, protection, redistribution or reproduction. As such, discussions on the interactions between social and environmental issues and policies such as eco-social-growth trilemma, triple bottom line, planetary boundaries, green growth, degrowth, post growth, and just transition or “well-being transition” have become the discussions of or on social policy, which has received new names such as eco-social policy or green social policy ( Fitzpatrick and Cahill 2002 ; Mandelli 2022 ). Employing an intentionally broad definition of social policy also has advantages in identifying
