The green economy and post‐growth regimes: opportunities and challenges for economic geography

Abstract

While mainstream economic geography is doing increasing research on green manufacturing and services, with a few notable exceptions, its predominant conceptual approaches to emerging modes of economic orientation continue to examine economic transitions somewhat unreflexively within the context of traditional growth paradigms. The aim of this article is to explore and critically examine neoliberal discourses on the green economy and smart growth by exploring contributions to debates on green economics proposed by ideas linked to post‐growth economies. Based on studies by scholars such as Tim Jackson and Serge Latouche, the article examines the contours of debates on post‐growth, décroissance (de‐growth) and prosperity without growth. We begin by examining growth debates and existing contributions by economic and other geographers to the exploration of alternatives to conventional growth‐centred economics. We then identify some emergent spatial facets of post‐growth transitions and utilize these to explore potential research topics and opportunities for empirical and conceptual contributions by economic geographers to academic and societal debates on economic transitions and post‐growth paradigms. Particular attention is paid to approaches currently discussed in economic geography, such as socio‐technical transition studies.

Degrowth in city planning

“…Consequently, local degrowth initiatives resonate well with urban transition campaigns aiming at low carbon communities (Mälgand et al 2014;Schulz & Bailey 2014;Barr & Pollard 2017). Degrowth and transition movements foster local actions that reduce environmental impacts, energy consumption and carbon emissions; they both also concentrate on the renewal of urban mobility infrastructure.…”

Alternative spaces of urban sustainability: results of a first integrative approach in the Italian city of Brescia

“…In most studies on urban sustainability, the two faces of the postmodern city (Amendola ; Soja )—production and consumption—must be considered together with the aim of moving to a more sustainable system. In particular, according to de‐growth and post‐growth movements, there is an increasing need to transform production and consumption models to lower, sustainable and inclusive levels and modes (Bettini and Karaliotas ; Schulz and Bailey ).…”

Making sense of the green economy

“…If, as Ocampo (2011, p. 3) claims, the green economy represents a new economic paradigm for moving from an economic system 'that allowed, and at times generated crises towards a system that proactively addresses and prevents them', an important task for analysis is to contemplate alternatives to the economic logics that the green economy putatively seeks to transform and the neoliberal and ecologically modernizing logics that appear to pervade many of the mainstream narratives on the green economy noted earlier (Bina 2013). With this in mind, Schulz and Bailey (2014) explore a range of "post-growth" alternatives that seek to challenge or ameliorate conventional growth-centred economics -and especially ecologically modernizing smart growth -as preferred avenues for green economy transitions. More specifically, they argue that economic geography has a major opportunity to contribute towards understanding and critically analysing the space-related causes, processes and effects of current and potential future economic and social changes associated with mainstream and alternative green-economy conceptualizations of growth and well-being.…”