Reducing growth to achieve environmental sustainability: the role of work hours

Abstract

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The sociology of global climate change

“…A reduction of work hours has been studied as a means for countering consumerism and the so‐called work‐and‐spend cycle . A study of 29 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) high‐income nations finds that an increase in the number of work hours is correlated with increases in three environmental impact variables: ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and CO 2 emissions . This study recommends policies that reduce national work hours, arguing they will yield better environmental outcomes than policies directed to energy efficient technologies.…”

“…61 A study of 29 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) high-income nations finds that an increase in the number of work hours is correlated with increases in three environmental impact variables: ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and CO 2 emissions. 62 This study recommends policies that reduce national work hours, arguing they will yield better environmental outcomes than policies directed to energy efficient technologies. Similarly, some cross-national studies find that human well-being is increasingly decoupled from environmental stressors of the work-and-spend cycle in high income nations.…”

Sociology and climate change

“…Givens, 2015;Hornborg, Martinez-Alier, 2016;Milošević, 1996;Huang, 2018;Prell et al, 2015). Већа емисија угљен-диоксида по глави становника, према налазима ових истраживања, зависи како од висине БДП-а, тако и од дужине радног времена (Knight, Rosa, Schor, 2012). Ови налази могу се повезати са налазима пропитивања начина и стила живота и друштвених неједнакости са емисијом угљен-диоксида.…”

“…Many authors suggest that there is a connection between climate change and social inequalities both globally and within individual societies (see Givens, 2015;Hornborg, Martinez-Alier, 2016;Milošević, 1996;Huang, 2018;Prell et al, 2015). According to these studies, higher carbon dioxide emissions per capita depend on the level of the GDP as well as on the number of working hours (Knight, Rosa, Schor, 2012). These findings can be combined with those of the studies examining lifestyle and social inequalities in relation to carbon dioxide emissions.…”

“Friday off”: Reducing Working Hours in Europe

“…There are several candidates for such variables including institutions, culture, technology, or economic structure (such as whether an economy is industrializing or a service economy). In the most advanced methodologically study to date with fixed effects on panel data for 29 high-income countries, Knight et al find that shorter work hours tend to have lower ecological footprints, carbon footprints, and carbon dioxide emissions [59]. Panel data fixed effects control for unobserved variables that do not change over time, or that change over time but do not differ among countries.…”