Postgrowth and Wellbeing [electronic resource] : Challenges to Sustainable Welfare /
Büchs, Milena.author.
Koch, Max.author.
This book presents a detailed and critical discussion about how human wellbeing can be maintained and improved in a postgrowth era. It highlights the close links between economic growth, market capitalism, and the welfare state demonstrating that, in many ways, wellbeing outcomes currently depend on the growth paradigm. Here the authors argue that notions of basic human needs deserve greater emphasis in debates on postgrowth because they are more compatible with limits to growth. Drawing on theories of social practices, the book explores structural barriers to transitions to a postgrowth society, and ends with suggestions for policies and institutions that could support wellbeing in the context of postgrowth. This thought-provoking work makes a valuable contribution to debates surrounding climate change, sustainability, welfare states and inequality and will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, sociology, political science, economics, political ecology and human geography.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Capitalist development and the growth paradigm -- Chapter 3 Growth and the welfare state as we know it -- Chapter 4 Critiques of growth -- Chapter 5 Postgrowth and human wellbeing -- Chapter 6: The generation of human wellbeing – social practices theory -- Chapter 7: Welfare in a global steady-state economy -- Chapter 8: Conclusions.
This book presents a detailed and critical discussion about how human wellbeing can be maintained and improved in a postgrowth era. It highlights the close links between economic growth, market capitalism, and the welfare state demonstrating that, in many ways, wellbeing outcomes currently depend on the growth paradigm. Here the authors argue that notions of basic human needs deserve greater emphasis in debates on postgrowth because they are more compatible with limits to growth. Drawing on theories of social practices, the book explores structural barriers to transitions to a postgrowth society, and ends with suggestions for policies and institutions that could support wellbeing in the context of postgrowth. This thought-provoking work makes a valuable contribution to debates surrounding climate change, sustainability, welfare states and inequality and will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, sociology, political science, economics, political ecology and human geography.
Social policy.
Social structure.
Social inequality.
Economic sociology.
Environmental sociology.
Political economy.
Economic growth.
Social Policy.
Social Structure, Social Inequality.
Organizational Studies, Economic Sociology.
Environmental Sociology.
International Political Economy.
Economic Growth.