Pathways to an Equitable Post-Growth Economy. Towards an Economics for Social-Ecological Transformation

The world is confronted with several aggravating and interconnected crises: multidimensional ecological breakdown, rising inequality, not least the Covid-19 pandemic and its repercussions. Tackling these challenges in a sound manner requires to identify their root causes. In that endeavour, the role of economics should be to identify and explain the interconnections of these phenomena with the current economic system, and thereby pave the way for purposive interventions. This thesis identifies the inadequacy of existing analyses and respective solutions provided by the economics mainstream to live up to the urgency and scope of these crises and scrutinises the field of Degrowth/Post-Growth economics as a new paradigm to address these shortcomings. Degrowth/Post-Growth seeks to reorganise the economy towards equity and sustainability and proposes concrete measures to achieve such a transformation. This thesis affirms the need for a social-ecological transformation of both the economy and economics to tackle the current crises. Yet it argues that Degrowth/Post-Growth economics still lacks a comprehensive analysis of its proposals for transformation in light of the contemporary capitalist system. Against this backdrop, this thesis aims to assess and advance Degrowth/Post-Growth economics by elaborating, from the ground up, the fundamental structures and relations of capitalist economies, the dynamics to which they give rise, and how they play out in the 21st century. This analysis allows the identification of systemic drivers of environmental degradation and inequality as well as necessary steps to change course.

A comprehensive and critical overview of the emerging field of Degrowth/Post-Growth Economics forms the basis of the analysis. It includes the discussion of different strands, major themes and methodological approaches. By means of this review, the theoretical and methodological strengths and shortcomings are identified, the latter giving rise to the specific approach taken in this thesis. Drawing on the rich heterodox economics tradition, predominantly but not limited to Marxian Political Economy, I elaborate a theoretical framework of the capitalist economic system tailored to the subsequent assessment of proposals for transformation. The framework includes the fundamental relations, dynamics and dependencies that characterise capitalist economies as well as contemporary developments of the capitalist system, including financialisation, globalisation and ‘rentierisation’. I use this framework to analyse the concrete Degrowth/Post-Growth proposals for addressing the interconnected social-ecological crises, covering regulatory, fiscal and monetary interventions as well as measures that target patterns of provisioning more directly. The assessment of their transformative potential includes three dimensions: first, a policy’s power to reduce environmental degradation and prevent the transgression of planetary boundaries; second, its potential to reduce inequality and ensure need satisfaction; third the interactions with the core institutions, tendencies and contemporary forms of capitalist economies. This approach reveals levers for transformation at a systemic level as well as systemic barriers to the implementation of specific policy proposals. It also highlights important avenues for future research and action in Degrowth/Post-Growth economics, including democratic macroeconomic coordination, a fundamental transformation of the monetary and financial system, and the closer consideration of global interconnections in the assessment and proposition of transformative solutions.