As a researcher who has dedicated his professional interest to sustainability and its paradoxical connection to growth, I try to be a “public academic”. Public insofar as the very notion of sustainability and its implication for a society, that can most likely be termed “unsustainable”, is highly political – and relevant to all, regardless if they are decision makers in politics and business or “just” ordinary citizens caring for their own and their families’ future well-being.… Read more
Technology Beyond Growth – The Role of Technology in the Postgrowth Economy
Placing the notion of technology within a postgrowth setting is like introducing Conchita Wurst to a Vatican congregation. Not any congregation, but the Papal conclave. Not as a surprise guest to cheer everyone up, but as a serious proposal for the next Holy Father – or in this case: the Holy Trinity of the one, the other, and both. Technology? Are you sure? Technology is either regarded as the dominant means to follow the futile dream of decoupling economic activity from ecological impact thus producing »green« growth – and thus cementing the capitalist, growth-oriented machine, responsible for environmental degradation, productivity increase and workers exploitation, acting as the materialist »perpetuum mobile« spewing out one gadget after the other in order to keep us fixed in our roles as mindless consumers, feeling ever more hollow down to our human core.… Read more
The Great Transition
An Essay on Organization and Management in the Sustainability Society*
From crisis to meta-crisis
At the Convocation of the United Negro** College Fund in 1959, John F. Kennedy referred to the Chinese word for “crisis” being made up of two symbols, one denoting “danger” (wēi), and the other denoting “opportunity” (jī). Today, many decision makers in politics and the economy use this phrase addressing the slowly retreating economic and financial crisis.… Read more
Green growth vs. Postgrowth – Where the twain can meet
In the discussions on the future of economic growth, business as usual is not an option. That alone can be regarded as good news. When the modern narrative of growth is evoked in policy debates, it is always green growth that is summoned. Green growth is sought to be resource-efficient, low-carbon and socially inclusive. Green growth is the key strategy to battle climate change, bring eco-friendly development to emerging countries, renew economic structures in industrialized nations and produce robust jobs for a changing world.… Read more
IPAT and the End of Growth
In the early 1970s Ehrlich and Holdren devised a simple equation in dialogue with Commoner identifying three factors that created environmental impact. Thus, impact (I) was expressed as the product of (1) population, (P); (2) affluence (A); and (3) technology, (T):
I = P * A * T
Population is the number of people on the planet, affluence is measured in GDP per capita, and technology is environmental impact per GDP. When looking at the growth rates of each I, P, A, and T the formula changes towards this form:
dI = dP + dA + dT
In order to see how the impact changes from one year to the next one, you just have to sum up the changes in population increase, affluence, and technological progress.… Read more