Replacing GDP by 2030

Abstract

a group of civil servants go into the "lock-up" procedure in a secure room at 4600 Silver Hill Road, Maryland, USA. In the afternoon they enter an office where their name and time of arrival are recorded.They are not allowed to leave until they are officially dismissed, no earlier than 18:00. Contact with people outside the room is heavily restricted. All computers have been disabled for outside communication. There is only one telephone, which is controlled by the lockup manager, who logs all conversations. Worksheets, notes, rough drafts, unused copies, single-strike ribbons or laser cartridges are collected when the lock-up ends. "Shredder Bins" are provided for office trash.

A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part I: bibliometric and conceptual mapping

“…The idea of economic growth was termed the most important conceptual innovation of the 20th century (McNeill 2000) and it has become synonymous with limitless societal progress and improved wellbeing for many politicians and large parts of the general public (Schmelzer 2015(Schmelzer , 2016. While criticism of GDP as the central policy indicator and its growth as a political achievement is mounting (Costanza et al 2014, Hickel and Kallis 2019, Hoekstra 2019, Jackson and Victor 2019, Parrique et al 2019, the growth imperatives for firms and corporations and, by extension, for their political champions, give it staying power in the actions of business managers and policymakers. Hence, it remains a highly relevant question whether the continued focus on economic growth fuels the rapidly accelerating sustainability and climate crisis and to what extent research addresses these issues.…”

Equity Within Ecological Limits: Grand Challenge for Sustainable Consumption

“…For this reason, sustainable consumption research partly overlaps with the research on degrowth (Latouche, 2007;Hobson, 2013;Lorek and Fuchs, 2013;Spangenberg, 2014), which intends to develop economic perspectives based on the wellbeing of all independent from economic growth (D'Alisa et al, 2014). Research on and implementation of other measures of progress than GDP, which focus on human wellbeing and the "good life", are an emerging approach as well (Hoekstra, 2019). As novel methods of data decomposition show, the assumed strong correlation between growth, emissions, and human development is not necessarily given.…”

Economic statistics as political artefacts

“…At the same time, economic statistics have acquired a dubious reputation in public discourse. More than any other headline figure, gross domestic product (GDP) has been lambasted for its reductionist economism (Hoekstra, 2019;Philipsen, 2015;Stiglitz et al, 2010) and blamed for leading economic policies down socially harmful and environmentally unsustainable paths (Hamilton, 2003;Pilling, 2018). Leading economic metrics are seen to hinder social progress when they block our view of broader societal goals (Fioramonti, 2013).…”