|
Once held to be a sacrosanct policy objective, economic growth is increasingly contested as post-growth arguments sprout against the backdrop of the worsening global ecological crisis. Yet the debate has remained polarised and, to some degree, even deadlocked: it boils down to whether one believes in the possibility of decoupling (green growth position) or not (post-growth/degrowth position). As a result, essential political economy questions about post-growth tend to get elided: Who benefits from the growth-oriented status quo? Who would benefit and who would lose from a post-growth transformation? Which sectors would have to shrink, and which ones would even to – well – grow? How would productive and reproductive work be reallocated between different social groups (along lines of gender, class and race)? How would North-South relations change? Answers to these and related questions may help to provide a more nuanced picture of the debate beyond the common growth vs. post-growth juxtaposition, as well as clearer guidance for policydesign and implementation.
The seminar introduces students to this crucial debate, relevant post-growth/degrowth concepts, the growth models framework and alternative post-growth/degrowth modelling efforts. In doing so, students engage with key contributions toecological economics and political economy to collectively develop a political economy ‘checklist’ to be applied in small projects that focus on one of two core themes: (1) the growth dependence of the modern welfare state, and (2) dependencies in North-South relations. Students prepare small poster presentations of their projects and can develop their term papers on that basis.
The seminar covers the following main topics:
• The (green) growth vs. post-growth/degrowth debate in ecological economics and political economy
• Post-growth/Degrowth concepts (relative/absolute decoupling, sufficiency, Doughnut)
• Growth models and first attempts at post-growth/degrowth models
• The growth dependence of the modern welfare state
• Dependencies in North-South relations
Key readings (some/parts of which will be mandatory)
Baccaro, Lucio, Mark Blyth and Jonas Pontusson (eds) (2022) Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Buch-Hansen, Hubert and Martin B. Carstensen (2021) ‘Paradigms and the political economy of ecopolitical projects: Green growth and degrowth compared’, Competition & Change, 25(3–4): 308–327.
Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Alexander Paulsson and Stefania Barca (eds) (2019) Towards a Political Economy of Degrowth, London: Rowman & Littlefield.
D’Alisa, Giacomo, Federico Demaria and Giorgos Kallis (eds) (2015) Degrowth: A vocabulary for a new era, Abingdon: Routledge.
Gräbner-Radkowitsch, Claudius and Birte Strunk (2023) ‘Degrowth and the Global South: The twin problem of global dependencies’, Ecological Economics, 213: 107946.
Hasselbalch, Jacob A., Matthias Kranke and Ekaterina Chertkovskaya (2023) ‘Organizing for transformation: post-growth in International Political Economy’, Review of International Political Economy, 30(5): 1621–1638.
Koch, Max and Hubert Buch-Hansen (2021) ‘In search of a political economy of the postgrowth era’, Globalizations, 18(7): 1219–1229.
Latouche, Serge (2009) Farewell to Growth, Trans. David Macey, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Nelson, Anitra (ed.) (2025) Routledge Handbook of Degrowth, Abingdon: Routledge.
Raworth, Kate (2017) Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, London: Random House. |
