Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs

Koch, Max; Buch‐Hansen, Hubert; Fritz, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.03.035

Cited by 49 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Addressing intergenerational concerns and issues of universality in the context of climate change, Gough [7] suggests a "policy auditing" principle for a "minimally decent life", which constantly (re-)defines critical thresholds in light of the advancement of academic and practical knowledge. While it is, in principle, possible to satisfy basic human needs on a global scale, the degree to which more than basic needs can be provided on a planet with finite resources remains subject to scientific inquiry [17]. In contrast to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most "sustainable welfare" authors are doubtful that this can be achieved while promoting economic growth at the same time.…”

Section: Sustainable Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies

Fritz

Koch

2019

Sustainability

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The emerging concept of sustainable welfare attempts to integrate environmental sustainability and social welfare research. Oriented at a mid-term re-embedding of Western production and consumption norms into planetary limits, it suggests the development of “eco-social” policies in the rich countries. In this theoretical context, this article empirically investigates the relationships between attitudes towards welfare and climate policy in 23 countries. Using 2016 data from the European Social Survey, we explored patterns of synergy between both kinds of policies as well as effects of crowding-out, where support for one kind of policy involves refusing the other. Since previous research addressed the role of welfare states and their institutional foundations in establishing environmentally sustainable societies, we studied how attitudes towards welfare and climate policies differ according to welfare regime affiliation. Additionally, we examined how a range of socio-demographic and political factors such as class, education, income, and political position shape people’s views on welfare and climate policy goals. The results of a multiple correspondence analysis indicate that the simultaneous support of welfare and climate policies follows welfare regime lines in that this support is the highest among social-democratic countries. However, also some conservative and Mediterranean countries score high in this regard. At the individual level, people with a higher education, employees in socio-cultural professions, and voters of moderate left and green parties display the highest mutual support for welfare and climate policies.

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Section: Sustainable Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies

Fritz

Koch

2019

Sustainability

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“…Hence, the understanding of climate change as a devastating threat, in particular, and the very idea of environmental sustainability, in general, constitute a challenge to 'business as usual' in social policy and have significant implications for the scope and direction of welfare policies, which would need to give greater weight to distribution and justice across nations and generations. Within the concept of 'sustainable welfare' (and indeed in degrowth), the key welfare concern is not the provision and distribution of material riches to the 'happy few' in Western societies, but rather the satisfaction of basic needs for all humans now and in the future [27,28].…”

Section: Sustainable Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Welfare beyond Growth

Hirvilammi

Koch

2020

Sustainability

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“…The current bioeconomy probably is the most important structure in society to support a social foundation and to fulfil individual needs and with 'satisfiers' such as food, medicines, clothes, energy and construction materials, as well as meaningful work and leisure. The centrality of human needs and related concepts of human wellbeing are gaining ground in alternative models for sustainable development [60][61][62], including degrowth [63,64], as well as in transformative research, for example in relation to energy use [65][66][67]. In common, these approaches propose to focus on decoupling the satisfaction of human needs from resource use.…”

Section: From "Three-pillar" Sustainability To a Coupled Social-ecolomentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioeconomy Transitions through the Lens of Coupled Social-Ecological Systems: A Framework for Place-Based Responsibility in the Global Resource System

et al. 2019

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Bioeconomy strategies in high income societies focus at replacing finite, fossil resources by renewable, biological resources to reconcile macro-economic concerns with climate constraints. However, the current bioeconomy is associated with critical levels of environmental degradation. As a potential increase in biological resource use may further threaten the capacity of ecosystems to fulfil human needs, it remains unclear whether bioeconomy transitions in high income countries are sustainable. In order to fill a gap in bioeconomy sustainability assessments, we apply an ontological lens of coupled social-ecological systems to explore critical mechanisms in relation to bioeconomy activities in the global resource system. This contributes to a social-ecological systems (SES)-based understanding of sustainability from a high income country perspective: the capacity of humans to satisfy their needs with strategies that reduce current levels of pressures and impacts on ecosystems. Building on this notion of agency, we develop a framework prototype that captures the systemic relation between individual human needs and collective social outcomes on the one hand (micro-level) and social-ecological impacts in the global resource system on the other hand (macro-level). The BIO-SES framework emphasizes the role of responsible consumption (for physical health), responsible production (to reduce stressors on the environment), and the role of autonomy and self-organisation (to protect the reproduction capacity of social-ecological systems). In particular, the BIO-SES framework can support (1) individual and collective agency in high income country contexts to reduce global resource use and related ecosystem impacts with a bioeconomy strategy, (2) aligning social outcomes, monitoring efforts and governance structures with place-based efforts to achieve the SDGs, as well as (3), advancing the evidence base and social-ecological theory on responsible bioeconomy transitions in the limited biosphere.

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Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs

Cited by 49 publications

References 32 publications

Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies

Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies

Sustainable Welfare beyond Growth

Bioeconomy Transitions through the Lens of Coupled Social-Ecological Systems: A Framework for Place-Based Responsibility in the Global Resource System

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