The Hegemony of Growth

Schmelzer, Matthias

doi:10.1017/cbo9781316452035

Cited by 267 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…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.…”

Section: Conclusion: Status Quo For Decoupling Studies and The Way Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wiedenhofer

Virág

Kalt

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

128

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As long as economic growth is a major political goal, decoupling growth from resource use and emissions is a prerequisite for a sustainable net-zero emissions future. However, empirical evidence for absolute decoupling, i.e. decreasing resource use and emissions at the required scale despite continued economic growth, is scarce and scattered across different research streams. In this two-part systematic review, we assess how and to what extent decoupling has been observed and what can be learnt for addressing the sustainability and climate crisis. Based on a transparent approach, we systematically identify and screen more than 11 500 scientific papers, eventually analyzing full texts of 835 empirical studies on the relationship between economic growth (GDP), resource use (materials and energy) and greenhouse gas emissions. Part I of the review examines how decoupling has been investigated across three research streams: energy, materials and energy, and emissions. Part II synthesizes the empirical evidence and policy implications (Haberl et al 2020 Environ. Res. Lett. 15 065003). In part I, we examine the topical, temporal and geographical scopes, methods of analysis, institutional networks and prevalent conceptual angles. We find that in this rapidly growing literature, the vast majority of studies-decomposition, 'causality' and Environmental Kuznets Curve analysis-approach the topic from a statistical-econometric point of view, while hardly acknowledging thermodynamic principles on the role of energy and materials for socio-economic activities. A potentially fundamental incompatibility between economic growth and systemic societal changes to address the climate crisis is rarely considered. We conclude that the existing wealth of empirical evidence merits braver conceptual advances than we have seen thus far. Future work should focus on comprehensive multi-indicator long-term analyses, conceptually grounded on the fundamental biophysical basis of socio-economic activities, incorporating the role of global supply chains as well as the wider societal role and preconditions of economic growth.

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Section: Conclusion: Status Quo For Decoupling Studies and The Way Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wiedenhofer

Virág

Kalt

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

128

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It never produced any tangible results. 100 The strongest force behind the backlash against the critiques of growth came with the onset of economic turmoil, soaring energy prices, and stagflation from 1973/74 onwards. While the energy shortages and their effects on industrialized countries were largely interpreted by the public as proof of the Club of Rome's predictions, within the OECD these developments did not strengthen the faction critical of growth.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Born in the corridors of the OECD’: the forgotten origins of the Club of Rome, transnational networks, and the 1970s in global history

Schmelzer

2017

Journal of Global History

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This article re-examines a contested chapter in the international and environmental history of the 1970s. Even though largely neglected by historical research and in the public memory, the Club of Rome – widely remembered for its 1972 report The limits to growth – was not only born within the OECD, but was also in its early period strongly influenced by debates within this think tank of the industrialized countries. Using previously overlooked sources, this article analyses this highly unlikely OECD–Club of Rome nexus. It not only offers a privileged view into the social history of international policy-making and the related personal entanglements and ideological transfers at a key moment of post-war history. It also demonstrates that the social, intellectual, and economic turmoil of the late 1960s prompted a rethinking of the economic growth paradigm, even within those technocratic institutions that had aspired to guide the post-war industrial growth regime. The article argues that these links are not only vital for our understanding of the relationship between acquisitive growth capitalism and environmentalism, but also enable a more profound understanding of the role of transnational networks in global history and the appreciation of the place of the 1970s in world history.

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“…Thus reconfigured, the revitalized growth paradigm allowed policy-makers to avoid the interventions implied by social indicators advocates, and instead point to growing aggregate prosperity as progress. 118 While the interest of scholars and activists in social indicators and new metrics such as the HDI persisted, it coexisted with a more powerful faith in market-oriented GNP growth.…”

Section: Critiques Of Gnp Growth and The Rise Of Social Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whither growth? International development, social indicators, and the politics of measurement, 1920s–1970s

Macekura

2019

Journal of Global History

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Few concepts in the history of twentieth-century history proved as important as economic growth. Scholars such as Charles Maier, Robert Collins, and Timothy Mitchell have analysed how the notion that an entity called ‘the economy’ (defined by metrics such as Gross National Product, or GNP) could be made to grow came to define economic thought and policy worldwide. Yet there has been far less attention paid to the fact that neither growth nor GNP went without challenge during their emergence and global diffusion. This article focuses on one set of growth critics: those who advocated for ‘social indicators’ in international development policy during the 1960s and 1970s. It advances three overlapping arguments: that advocates for social indicators harkened back to early twentieth-century transnational efforts to make workers’ ‘standard of living’ the primary statistical framework for policy-makers; that, while supporters of social indicators expressed frustration with technocratic governance, their reform efforts nevertheless represented technocratic critiques of modernity; and finally, that one of the major reform efforts, Morris David Morris’s advocacy on behalf of the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index’ (PQLI), as an alternative measure of national wellbeing, ultimately struggled to challenge the GNP growth paradigm, and yet proved influential in spawning subsequent research into new measures and approaches to development.

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The Hegemony of Growth

Cited by 267 publications

References 0 publications

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

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

‘Born in the corridors of the OECD’: the forgotten origins of the Club of Rome, transnational networks, and the 1970s in global history

Whither growth? International development, social indicators, and the politics of measurement, 1920s–1970s

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