Library

Presentation • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - A legal approach to beyond GDP indicators: possibilities and limits

Presentation [part of the standard session "Institutional Change 1"] How can law contribute to the use of indicators that measure progress in an alternative manner? What are the limits thereof? This session will explore legal definitions and operationalizations of “beyond Gross Domestic Product” metrics by examining concrete existing legislation. Presenters: Norman Vander Putten (Université...

Scientific paper • 2019

Do Beyond GDP indicators initiated by powerful stakeholders have a transformative potential?

By: Olivier Malay

The last four decades have seen a proliferation of new indicators aiming to challenge GDP. But do they really produce new outcomes? By observing the rankings they produce (compared to those produced by GDP), the potential of 6 Beyond GDP indicators to suggest a way towards a more social and ecological society has been examined. The conclusion is that rankings from indicators initiated by...

Misc • 2018

Is Degrowth the Only Way to Save the World?

By: Ronald Bailey

Introduction: Unless us folks in rich countries drastically reduce our material living standards and distribute most of what we have to people living in poor countries, the world will come to an end. Or at least that's the stark conclusion of a study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Sustainability. The researchers who wrote it, led by the Leeds University ecological economist...

Scientific paper • 2018

Sustainability, Wellbeing and the Posthuman Turn

By: Thomas S.J. Smith

This book examines how the way we conceive of, or measure, the environment changes the way we interact with it. Thomas Smith posits that environmentalism and sustainable development have become increasingly post-political, characterised by abstraction, and quantification to an unprecedented extent. As such, the book argues that our ways of measuring both the environment, such as through...

Presentation • 2018

Post-Growth Conference, Brussels 2018 - Workshop Beyond GDP Growth

By: Christian Felber, Leida Rijnhout, Efi Achtsióglou, Patrick ten Brink, Joost Koorte

Chair: Helmut Scholz, MEP (GUE/NGL) Panellists: Efi Achtsióglou (Greek Minister of Labour), Christian Felber (Economy for the Common Good), Leida Rijnhout (SDG Watch Steering Committee), Patrick ten Brink (European Environmental Bureau, Director of EU Policy), Joost Koorte (European Commission, DG EMPL, Director General)

Scientific paper • 2017

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan: meaning, measure and degrowth in a living development alternative

By: Ritu Verma

Keywords: Gross National Happiness, degrowth, holistic development, Bhutan

Interview • 2017

Our addiction to economic growth is killing us

By: Jason Hickel

Description by BBC Newsnight: In this Viewsnight, anthropologist Jason Hickel asks if economic growth really makes our lives better. He is the author of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions.

Misc • 2017

UBI could increase human well-being and help save the planet

By: Joseph Cederwall

Introduction: Anthropologist Jason Hickel believes basic income could be part of the solution to this problem of the pervasiveness of the growth mentality. He presents UBI as forming part of a strategy of “planned de-growth,” which he believes will “increase human well-being and happiness while reducing our economic footprint.”

Misc • 2017

Why less is more - There’s only one way to avoid climate catastrophe: ‘de-growing’ our economy

By: Jason Hickel

Jason Hickel argues in an articel that Degrowth is the only chance to avoid catastrophic climate change

Misc • 2017

The World After GDP - Economics, Politics and International Relations in the Post-Growth Era

By: Lorenzo Fioramonti

GDP is much more than a simple statistic. It has become the overarching benchmark of success and a powerful ordering principle at the heart of the global economy. But the convergence of major economic, social and environmental crises has exposed the flaws of our economic system which values GDP above all else as a measure of prosperity and growth. In this provocative and inspiring new book,...

Report • 2016

Was ist ein guter Gradmesser für unseren Wohlstand?

By: Die Grünen

Ein Beitrag der Grünen anlässlich des Jahreswohlstandesberichts 2016. Sie kritisieren darin BIP als ungeeigneten Indikator. Weiter berufen sich auf die Enquetekommission "Wachstum, Wohlstand und Lebensqualität" und kritisieren die Bundesregierung, die folgender Empfehlung nicht nachkommt: "Ausgehend von der Erkenntnis, dass Wohlstand mehr ist als "Materieller Wohlstand" empfiehlt die...

Misc • 2016

Limits to growth: policies to steer the economy away from disaster

By: Samuel Alexander

From the text: . . . Others have shown why limitless growth is a recipe for disaster. I’ve argued that living in a degrowth economy would actually increase well-being, both socially and environmentally. But what would it take to get there? In a new paper published by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, I look at government policies that could facilitate a planned transition beyond...

Scientific paper • 2016

Surrendering to growth? The European Union's goals for research and technology in the Horizon 2020 framework

By: Jan Pollex, Andrea Lenschow

Keywords: European Union; Research policy; Sustainability; Degrowth and policy; Information and communication technology; Horizon 2020

Scientific paper • 2016

Economic values, capital accumulation and degrowth

By: Mikael Malmaeus

Historically, value theories used to be at the heart of critiques of capitalism. However, contemporary economists rarely focus on value theories, and the labor theory of value has not been discussed in relation to macroeconomic growth or in the context of degrowth. In this article it is theoretically and empirically demonstrated that economic values at the macroeconomic level are fundamentally...

Misc • 2016

CO2 als Maß aller Dinge - Die unheimliche Macht von Zahlen in der globalen Umweltpolitik

By: Camila Moreno, Lili Fuhr, Daniel Speich Chassé

Der Klimawandel ist real, von globaler Reichweite und Bedeutung. Doch diese Bedrohung wird seltsamerweise fast ausschließlich als ein Problem zu hoher CO2-Emissionen wahrgenommen. Diese Publikation macht deutlich, dass die Art und Weise, wie wir ein Problem beschreiben, weitgehend festlegt, welche Schritte und Maßnahmen wir zur Lösung dieses Problems in Erwägung ziehen. Am Beispiel des...

Scientific paper • 2015

The proximity of nations to a socially sustainable steady-state economy

By: Daniel W. O'Neill

Keywords: Indicators; Steady-state economy; Degrowth; Resource use; Well-being

Scientific paper • 2015

What Should Be Held Steady in a Steady-State Economy?: Interpreting Daly's Definition at the National Level

By: Daniel W. O'Neill

Keywords: degrowth; industrial ecology; material flow accounting; social metabolism; steady-state economy; throughput

Presentation • 2015

Kate Raworth ESEE2015 Plenary: Can we live within the doughnut community?

By: Kate Raworth

Plenary speech by Kate Raworth Plenary speech at the 2015 European Society for Ecological Economics Conference at the University of Leeds in July 2015. Practitioners Panel Q&A session with Ronan Palmer, Kate Raworth, Andy Mace and Paul Ellis

Scientific paper • 2015

The material footprint of nations

By: Thomas O. Wiedmann, Heinz Schandl, Manfred Lenzen, Daniel Moran, Sangwon Suh, James West, Keiichiro Kanemoto

Abstract: Metrics on resource productivity currently used by governments suggest that some developed countries have increased the use of natural resources at a slower rate than economic growth (relative decoupling) or have even managed to use fewer resources over time (absolute decoupling). Using the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource use, we find the...

Scientific paper • 2014

BRAINPOoL: Lessons from the Beyond GDP world for degrowth

By: Saamah Abdallah

Abstract: BRAINPOoL was a 2.5 year project funded by the EU FP7 funding stream to understand and explore the barriers to the use of Beyond GDP indicators in policy-making, and to identify opportunities to accelerate that use. The project involved a broad range of activities including a review of Beyond GDP initiatives, interviews with Beyond GDP indicator developers and the policy-makers and...