Building the Future from the Present: Imagining Post-Growth, Post-Productivist Ecosocial Policy

Abstract

The environment remains on the margins of social policy. Bringing degrowth literature into conversation with social policy debates about decommodification, we argue that a re-imagined decommodification remains central to addressing the social-ecological challenges we face and to forging a post-growth, post-productivist ecosocial welfare state. We explore the implications of this for re-imagining and mapping three core areas of an ecosocial welfare state revolving around the work/welfare/care nexus: the redistribution of time across work and care; repurposing of active labour market measures; and reorienting cash transfers and services. In each case we discuss what decommodified social policy in the service of a post-growth, post-productivist future might entail. Acknowledging challenges, we identify how instances of prefiguration of policy programmes and experiments across various countries offer concrete compass points for further transformation and a necessary paradigmatic shift.

Social Policy in a Climate Emergency Context: Towards an Ecosocial Research Agenda

“…Goodin, 2001;van der Veen and Groot, 2006) call for a more relaxed attitude towards work requirements in a 'post-productivist' welfare regime, while others propose the creation of a massive number of public sector 'green jobs' amid a job guarantee by the state (Dietz and O'Neill, 2013;Järvensivu et al, 2018). In general, a shift towards a postgrowth and postproductivist economy requires a new 'decommodified social policy' that repurposes active labour measures and fosters the redistribution of work, cash and services (Dukelow and Murphy, 2022). To enable this shift, new kinds of sustainable welfare benefits, such as universal basic income, universal basic services and universal basic vouchers, have been suggested (Bohnenberger, 2020;Coote and Percy, 2020).…”

“…There have also been attempts to revise the established corridors of social policy theorizing to align them with an ecosocial policy agenda (e.g. Dukelow and Murphy, 2022;Gough, 2017;Hirvilammi and Helne, 2014;. Generally, this literature highlights the need to effect change across everyday life settings in addition to political and social institutions.…”

The role of work and social protection systems in social-ecological transformations: Insights from deliberative citizen forums in Sweden

“…Moreover, the environmentally detrimental impact of our working life has been critically reviewed, for instance, in terms of the enormous ecological footprint linked to the material resource use, transportation and infrastructure associated with work, as well as the consumption culture underpinning the work society (Gerold et al, 2022;Hoffmann and Paulsen 2020). In addition, sustainable welfare scholars have proposed new models and systems of work, care and need satisfaction that are reliant on the unconditional provision of basic services (Coote and Percy, 2020;Büchs, 2021;Gough, 2019) and complemented by social protection systems that are repurposed to promote participation in socially and ecologically helpful activities rather than promoting all types of wage work (Dukelow and Murphy, 2022;Laruffa, 2022).…”

“…Engaging in wage work and thereby contributing to social protection systems such as pension and unemployment insurance schemes is a fundamental condition that makes adult, able-bodied individuals deserving members of society, in general, and in respect of its social transfers, in particular (Fitzpatrick, 1998). Conventional social protection measures provide monetary compensation for individuals risking loss of income in the above-mentioned situations, but do not challenge productivism (Dukelow and Murphy, 2022). Modern welfare states with entrenched social protection systems, financed largely through taxes on labour income, rely on a strong employment ethic and are embedded in the capitalist growth imperative (Büchs and Koch, 2017; Dermine and Dumont, 2022; Mair et al, 2020).…”

“…This article contributes to the emerging literature that rethinks the role of work and social protection systems in the context of social-ecological transformation towards post-growth and post-productivist economies (Bottazzi, 2019; Corlet Walker et al, 2021; Dermine and Dumont, 2022; Dukelow and Murphy, 2022; Gerold et al, 2022; Gomez-Baggethun, 2022; Hirvilammi and Joutsenvirta, 2020; Koch et al, 2023; Laruffa, 2022; Laruffa et al, 2021). We link the existing scholarly discussion to qualitative empirical data from eleven deliberative citizen forums on sustainable needs satisfaction – or needs satisfaction within planetary limits – which we conducted in Sweden during 2020.…”