Degrowth - Taking Stock and Reviewing an Emerging Academic Paradigm
Weiss, Martin (European Commission - Joint Research Centre, Directorate C - Energy, Transport and Climate, Sustainable Transport Unit)
Cattaneo, Claudio (Institut d'Estudis Regionals i Metropolitans de Barcelona)

Date:	2017
Abstract:	Degrowth has evolved within a decade from an activist movement into a multi-disciplinary academic paradigm. However, an overview taking stock of the peer-refereed degrowth literature is yet missing. Here, we review 91 articles that were published between 2006 and 2015. We find that the academic degrowth discourse occupies a small but expanding niche at the intersection of social and applied environmental sciences. The discourse is shaped by authors from high-income, mainly Mediterranean, countries. Until 2012, articles largely constitute conceptual essays endorsed by normative claims. More recently, degrowth has branched out into modelling, empirical assessments, and the study of concrete implementations. Authors tend to agree in that economic growth cannot be sustained ad infinitum on a resource constraint planet and that degrowth requires far reaching societal change. Whether degrowth should be considered as a collectively consented choice or an environmentally-imposed inevitability constitutes a major debate among degrowth thinkers. We argue that the academic discourse could benefit from rigid hypotheses testing through input-output modelling, material flow analysis, life-cycle assessments, or social surveys. By analyzing the potentials for non-market value creation and identifying concrete well-being benefits, the degrowth discourse could receive wider public support and contribute to a paradigmatic change in the social sciences.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Degrowth ; Economic growth ; Sustainable development ; Steady-state economy
Published in:	Ecological Economics, Vol. 137 (July 2017) , p. 220-230, ISSN 1873-6106

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.01.014
PMID: 28674463

11 p, 1.0 MB

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