Policies for a Post-Growth Economy
- Report: Policies for a Post-Growth Economy. By Samuel Alexander. Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, MSSI Issues Paper No. 6, April 2016
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Description
"This paper provides a summary case for why there are, in fact, limits to growth, and outlines a range of bold policy interventions that would be required to produce a stable and flourishing post-growth economy. The analysis draws on and attempts to develop a rich array of thinking from literatures including ecological economics, eco-socialism, degrowth, and sustainable consumption. For decades a huge amount has been written in critique of growth economics, but the literature on what a post-growth economy would look like, or how to get there, is far less developed. This is inhibiting the movement for change. I acknowledge that most people do not recognise the need for a post-growth economy and therefore would reject my policy proposals as unacceptable. But as the limits to growth tighten their grip on economies in coming years and decades, I believe the debate will inevitably evolve, and the question will not be whether a post-growth economy is required, but rather how to create one – by design rather than disaster."
Author Bio
"Dr Samuel Alexander is a lecturer with the Office for Environmental Programs and a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne. He currently teaches a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ into the Master of Environment, University of Melbourne. His books include: Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever (2015); Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits (2015); Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future (2014); Entropia: Life beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013) and Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture(2009)."