Category: Next Economy

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Regeneration as a New Economic Policy Paradigm

Regenerative Economy

tl;dr: Regeneration is a forward-looking paradigm focused on increasing  the evolutionary ability of social-ecological systems by including everyone and everything that matters for a viable society

In 2022, Earth Overshoot Day for North America came in March, for Europe mostly in May. The unsustainability of the dominant growth- and exploitation-oriented political-economic system is out in the open, for everyone to see. At the same time, we celebrate some anniversaries this year: 50 years of the first UN conference on the natural environment in Stockholm, 50 years since the publication of “Limits go Growth”, 35 years since the publication of “Our Common Future”, and 30 years since the Earth Summit in Rio.… Read more

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Moving Beyond Growth: Compendium on Postgrowth Research

tl;dr: Compendium of my research on degrowth, postgrowth and the next economy

The First Decade of Degrowth Research

For over a decade now I have researched Degrowth or Décroissance from an organizational and business perspective. At the first International Degrowth Conference in Paris in 2008, I was the only management scholar talking about “Economic De-growth as Corporate Competitive Advantage?” (obviously I had taken crazy pills). In 2010 I engaged with Tim Jackson in London on a CEECEC / SERI workshop on “Toward an International Degrowth Network“, continuing with my theme on Degrowth and its implications for the firm.… Read more

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Sustainable and/or Digital? Compendium on Digital Sustainability

tl;dr: Compendium of my research on Sustainability and the Digital Transformation

When Megatrends Collide

Sustainability is the great challenge for humanity in the 21st century: how to organize economic, political, and social systems in a way that planetary boundaries and the viability of global as well as local ecosystems can be maintained for all posterity. It is an inherently political (i.e. contested, conflict-laden) as well as social (i.e. global justice and fairness across generations) question. We are facing this from a position of fundamental un-sustainabilities and are in search for the right path ahead.… Read more

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In Search For Meaning: The Real Challenges for the World Economic Forum 2019

tl;dr: Globalization needs new meanings beyond economic growth

This year’s World Economic Forum catchphrase is ”Globalization 4.0“ and focuses on a ”New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution“. The discussions this year will not be affirmative of new technologies and optimistic about new economic opportunities. Rather a very concerned view on the new global realities dominates, especially but not exclusively:

  • the rise of Neo-Nationalism and the politics of isolation and confrontation, especially in the former globalization heartlands like the USA and UK, but also in emerging countries like Brazil and core European countries like Hungary and Poland;
  • the ongoing and accelerating human-made climate change that requires global cooperation for successful mitigation, not national isolation.
… Read more
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Next Growth: Re-Imagining Growth

tl;dr: Moving beyond growth as a paradigm is vital to unlock a new economy of prosperity, creativity and sustainability – and business has a large role to play 

Successful business = economic growth. This equation appears to be a natural law of economics, despite the many downsides of growth (exploitation, inequalities, ecological degradation) and the economic limitations of growth (secular stagnation, lagging productivity, global demographic change, low to negative interest rates). In fact, in can be argued that we already see the first signs of a postgrowth age, with decelerating global growth rates and possible contractions in many countries in the years and decades ahead.… Read more