system change is now required ( IPCC, 2022a ). The cost of climate transition is already being felt more by those who can least afford and who least contributed to the problem ( Gough, 2017 ), hence the need for transitional justice and welfare state intervention at a global level. Neither technological adjustments nor price mechanisms will achieve such transformation, whereas a post-growth orientation offers a potential pathway to decommodification ( Hickel, 2021 ; Jackson, 2021 ). The chapter concludes by reflecting on how Ireland’s political economy impacts
these multiple perspectives and demands a comprehensive political response. The case for an ecosocial solution is manifold, and true from the obvious perspective of climate change, as well as the wider perspective of system change. The analysis rejects green-growth solutions that are overly productivist or techno-optimist in nature. This is consistent with a post-growth transformation to an ecosocial model that demotes economic growth as a policy objective, instead maximising human wellbeing, meeting basic needs and protecting our common eco-system. Each chapter
ARTICLE Post-capitalism, post-growth, post-consumerism? Eco-political hopes beyond sustainability Ingolfur Blühdorn Institute for Social Change and Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT As a road map for a structural transformation of socially and ecologically self-destructive consumer societies, the paradigm of sustainability is increasingly regarded as a spent force. Yet, its exhaustion seems to coincide with the rebirth of several ideas reminiscent of earlier, more radical currents of eco-political thought
The essay by Raphael et al (2024) eloquently discusses how encompassing (Nordic) welfare states can both facilitate a transition to sustainable, post-growth societies, yet are also fundamentally challenged by such a transition. This was also very well described as a ‘welfare paradox’ by Bailey (2015) . The authors highlight how established ‘welfare regimes’ do not readily conform to patterns of more and less sustainable economies (in terms of resource throughput), how generous welfare states with low within-country inequality at the same time relied on
simplicity as well as articles which aim to operationalise concepts like community economies ( Gibson-Graham et al, 2013 ), doughnut economics ( Raworth, 2018 ) and consumption corridors ( Di Giulio and Fuchs, 2014 ; Defila and Di Giulio, 2020 ) – all designed to ensure human welfare without exceeding ecological boundaries. The keyword essay in this collection takes a more literal approach to the issue of welfare, asking important questions about the implications of post-growth economics for the iconic social welfare systems of the Nordic countries. While the welfare
and social forms emerge, which have to be defended and expanded so as to slowly but steadily erode capitalism. This is also what US sociologist Erik Olin Wright (1947–2019) had in mind when he spoke of “real utopias,” that is, “real-world alternatives that can be constructed in the world as it is that also prefigure the world as it could be, and which help move us in that direction” (2010 : 326; see also Chapter 9 ). Beyond capitalism: solidarity economy and post-growth Against the backdrop of Mauss’ perspective, I will now consider some contemporary
) or ‘post-growth’ ( Banerjee et al, 2021 ; Pansera and Fressoli, 2021 ). Webb and Novkovic, for example, explicitly link the ideas of ‘post-growth’ with a cooperative society. In this cooperative post-growth context, they reject ‘both the state socialist and capitalist models of the twentieth century’ ( Webb and Novkovic, 2014 , p 1). In this rejection, they seek an alternative which paves the way towards a cooperative society of the future rather than one based on the past roots of co-operation and the 20th-century tussle between state and market forces. One of
Introduction In the context of current economic trends, many scholars ( Meadows et al, 1972 ; Feola, 2015 ; Göpel, 2016 ; Schmid, 2019 ; Strauss, 2020 ; Brand et al, 2020 ; Lange et al, 2021 ) see ecological exploitation and rising (global) inequalities as inherent parts of a capitalist growth-oriented economy. Consequently, they call for socioeconomic transformations beyond economic growth, commonly summarised under umbrella terms such as ‘post-growth’ or ‘post-capitalism’. Yet, as Lange et al (2021: 20) see it, it is not about a demonisation of
of a broader transformative agenda to a post-growth world. It also sketched a political strategy for making it happen. In this conclusion these propositions are interrogated to test whether they are coherent and convincing arguments. Restating the urgent problems and solutions Problem The UK legal contestation of a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport and the December 2022 UK decision to open a new coalmine in Whitehaven, Cumbria that will produce annually 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, throws into sharp light the inherent conflict
required in an ecosocial state. The challenge is to redistribute and support work, income, time and democratic participation in a post-growth society and economy. The chapter concludes by reviewing the state of inequality and wellbeing in Irish society. Social inequality Inequality The Oxfam Inequality Report is launched annually to coincide with the opening of the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, an annual gathering of the rich and influential. The contrast works. The Inequality Reports have become an important annual statement. Sobering
