Library

Is Europe faring well with growth? Evidence from a welfare comparison in the EU-15 (1995–2018)

By: Brent Bleys, Jonas Van der Slycken

This paper is the first to calculate welfare, measured by the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), for the EU-15 countries in a standardized and comparable way. This paper does so by building on a case study for Belgium by Van der Slycken and Bleys (2023) that puts forward a “2.0 methodology” with two distinct ISEWs that deal with cross-time and cross-boundary issues. Both welfare and...

A Successful Assessment of the Economic Impacts of Ecological Transition Policies in the EU Requires the European Commission to Broaden the Range of Its Modelling Tools

By: Camille Souffron, Pierre Jacques

This paper presents a nuanced exploration of the current economic models used by the European Commission, highlighting their required complements in the context of ecological transition policies in the European Union, such as the European Green Deal. It emphasises the need for and value of incorporating a broader range of complementary modelling tools and models that illuminate aspects often...

Making the great turnaround work. Economic policy for a green and just transition

By: Heinrich Böll Foundation, ZOE – Institute for Future-Fit Economies, Finanzwende Recherche

Scientific paper • 2020

Eco-social divides in Europe: public attitudes towards welfare and climate change policies

By: Adeline Otto, Dimitri Gugushvili

In the face of accelerating global warming and attendant natural disasters, it is clear that governments all over the world eventually have to take measures to mitigate the most adverse consequences of climate change. However, the costs of these measures are likely to force governments to reconsider some of their tax and spending priorities, of which social spending is the largest expenditure...

Scientific paper • 2020

Looking for the inverted pyramid: an application using input-output networks

By: Louison Cahen-Fourot, Emanuele Campiglio, Elena Dawkins, Antoine Godin, Eric Kemp-Benedict

Herman Daly's view of the economy as an “inverted pyramid” sitting on top of essential raw material inputs is compelling, but not readily visible in monetary data, as the contribution of primary sectors to value added is typically low. This article argues that “forward linkages”, a classical development theory concept capturing the relevance of a sector for downstream activities, is an...

Scientific paper • 2020

Mapping Different Worlds of Eco-Welfare States

By: Katharina Zimmermann, Paolo Graziano

Attention towards topics such as environmental pollution, climate change, or biodiversity has strongly increased in the last years. The struggles to balance market powers and ecological sustainability somehow evoke memories of the early days of European welfare states, when social protection emerged as a means to prevent industrial capitalism from disruptive social tensions due to excessive...

Scientific paper • 2019

Complementarity between the EJ movement and degrowth on the European semiperiphery: An empirical study

By: Mladen Domazet, Branko Ančić

Abstract: Inspired by the thesis that an alliance between degrowth and environmental justice (EJ) movements is essential (Akbulut et al., this issue), this paper presents the findings of empirical research concerning the pitfalls and possibilities of such an alliance as understood by prominent Croatian EJ movement leaders. We outline the context of the Croatian EJ movement...

Report • 2019

The Green New Deal for Europe: a blueprint for Europe's just transition

By: Giorgos Kallis, Riccardo Mastini, Giacomo D'Alisa, Emanuele Leonardi, Dirk Ehnts, Bill McKibben, Jason Hickel, Stefania Barca, Teresa Anderson, Grace Blakeley, Friedrich Bohn, Sam Bright, Nick Dearden, Nicoletta Dentico, Laura C. Zanetti-Domingues, Skender Fani, Julia Fish, Charlotte Hanson, Nick Jacobs, Tessa Khan, Mat Lawrence, Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Ruth London, Julian Brave NoiseCat, David Powell, Jérémy Rodrigues, Jakob Schäfer, Christoph Schneider, Giovanna Sissa, Isaac Stanley, Will Stronge, Sean Sweeney

Europe today confronts two crises. The first is an economic crisis, with rising levels of poverty, insecurity, and homelessness across the continent. The second is a climate and environmental crisis, with severe consequences for Europe’s front-line communities and even more perilous ones on the horizon. Both crises are the products of Europe’s political decisions, and they are closely bound...

Scientific paper • 2019

Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies

By: Max Koch, Martin Fritz

Abstract: The emerging concept of sustainable welfare attempts to integrate environmental sustainability and social welfare research. Oriented at a mid-term re-embedding of Western production and consumption norms into planetary limits, it suggests the development of “eco-social” policies in the rich countries. In this theoretical context, this article empirically investigates the...

Scientific paper • 2019

Frugality as a choice vs. frugality as a social condition. Is de-growth doomed to be a Eurocentric project?

By: Roldan Muradian

I argue that the degrowth movement reflects the values of a particular social group, namely the well-educated European middle class that share progressive-green-cosmopolitan values. This feature creates significant barriers for its dissemination among lower-income social groups in other parts of the world. There is an important difference between frugality as a choice and frugality as a social...

Report • 2018

Sufficiency: Moving beyond the gospel of eco-efficiency

By: Riccardo Mastini, Friends of the Earth Europe

“Sufficiency: moving beyond the gospel of eco-efficiency” suggests introducing hard limitations to unsustainable trends—in particular to overconsumption—and putting emphasis on distributional justice. Seven chapters written by sustainability and economics experts plus a foreword by Janez Potočnik (Co-chair of the International Resource Panel and former European Commissioner for the Environment)...

Presentation • 2018

First North-South Conference on Degrowth-Descrecimiento, México City 2018 - Frugality as a choice vs. frugality as a social condition

By: Roldan Muradian

Is degrowth doomed to be an Eurocentric project?

Scientific paper • 2017

Degrowth-compatible environmentalism in Europe – a cross-national empirical analysis

By: Mladen Domazet, Branko Ančić, Logan Richardson

Keywords: Degrowth, environmentalism, attitudes survey, comparative, Europe

Scientific paper • 2017

Quiet degrowth – diachronic and synchronic perspectives on the European semiperiphery

By: Mladen Domazet, Logan Richardson, Branko Ancic

Description by the authors: We are focused on the European semiperiphery as the standardly presented environmentalist laggard within European environmentalism (cf. Bozonnet, 2017). Unlike societies classified as globally “peripheral”, this region is characterised by already high material standards of living. At the same time, here concern for the environment appears even lower than what is the...

Misc • 2017

Wir Schlafwandler: G-20 Fieberträume, Klimaretter-Halluzinationen und der allzu reale Crashkurs

By: David Goeßmann

Einleitung Ein finsterer Wolfskopf fletscht die Zähne. Im Maul hält er knurrend die Weltkugel wie einen Spielball. Eine weiße Hand im Stile Michelangelos streckt sich nach der bedrohten Erde aus. Daneben stehen die mahnenden Worte: „Globalisierung außer Kontrolle. TRAUT EUCH! Radikal denken, entschlossen handeln – nur so ist die Welt noch zu retten.“ Das ist kein Plakat „linker Randalierer“,...

Report • 2016

Intellektuelles Minuswachstum

By: Bernhard Schmid

Aus dem Artikel: . . . Einer von Latouches zentralen Ansätzen ist die Kritik an der »Uniformierung der Welt«. Unter diesem Begriff fasst er Tendenzen zur Unterwerfung der Gesellschaft unter Kapitalimperative zusammen, die er jedoch um Aspekte des sogenannten Verlusts kultureller Identitäten ergänzt. Dies macht ihn für Rechtsextreme und Ideologen der naturnotwendigen Ungleichheit wie Alain de...

Report • 2016

Antikapitalistische Querfront

By: Federica Matteoni

Aus dem Artikel: In Italien prägen die Theoreme des Postwachstums die Fünf-Sterne Bewegung. Aber auch ehemals linke Globalisierungsgegner und rechte Intellektuelle reihen sich hier ein. Jungle World Nr. 6, 11. Februar 2016 Weitere Artikel zum Thema in der Jungel World: > Degrowth und schrumpfende Logik > Böses Wachstum > Intellektuelles Minuswachstum

Interview • 2016

The Malaise of the Old Left Represents an Opportunity for Degrowth

By: Vincent Liegey

Vincent Liegey answers questions about the current state of the degrowth movement, degrowth in Eastern Europe and about the European Union. From the text: These days, the degrowth movement is not interested in provocation anymore. Instead it wants to stimulate discussions amongst the people who believe that it is possible to decolonise our minds. Vincent Liegey, the coordinator of the latest...

Interview • 2016

„Wachstum wird immer schwieriger“

By: Giorgos Kallis

Giorgos Kallis im Kontext der Degrowth Konferenz in Budapest 2016 im Interview mit der Taz. Aus dem Interview: taz: Herr Kallis, Sie glauben an einen globalen Systemwandel. Was macht Sie so sicher? Giorgos Kallis: Wir betreten eine Ära, in der Wirtschaftswachstum immer schwieriger wird. Das beobachten nicht nur Degrowth-Forscher. Auch Stars der Szene wie der französische Ökonom Thomas Piketty...

Interview • 2016

„Der Planet hat Grenzen“

By: Vincent Liegey

Vincent Liegey im Kontext der Degrowth Konferenz 2016 in Budapest im Interview mit der taz. Aus dem Interview: taz: Herr Liegey, Sie koordinieren die 5. internationale Degrowth-Konferenz in Budapest. Was ist „Degrowth“? Vincent Liegey: Degrowth hinterfragt das Dogma des ewigen Wirtschaftswachstums. Der Planet, auf dem wir leben, hat Grenzen, die wir nicht einfach überschreiten können. Die...