VIDEO: Tim Jackson

Seven years ago, the publication of Prosperity without Growth was a landmark in the sustainability debate. Tim Jackson’s challenge to conventional economics openly questioned the pursuit of exponential economic growth. Its findings inspired debate and led to a new wave of research building on its arguments and conclusions.

At the same time the critique on greening the existing economy as the solution grew stronger. In Inside the Green Economy - Promises and Pitfalls Barbara Unmüßig and her co-authors set out to show that the promise of the Green Economy to reconcile continuous economic growth with ecological sustainability is a fallacy. Instead we need to repoliticize the debate around solutions and question our growth- led business as usual.

In the substantially re-written edition of his book, Jackson demonstrates that building a ‘post-growth’ economy is a precise and meaningful task. Starting from clear first principles, he sets out the dimensions of that task: the nature of enterprise; the quality of our working lives; the structure of investment; and the role of the money supply. He shows how the economy of tomorrow may be transformed in ways that protect employment, facilitate social investment and reduce inequality. Unmüßig et al here call for a radical social and ecological transformation that adresses established power structures and puts human rights, social equity and ecological justice before economic interests.