“Post-growth: the science of wellbeing within planetary boundaries” (2025), by Giorgos Kallis et al. Environmental Science research paper. Original abstract below, unchanged. A free PDF is available.

Post-growth: the science of wellbeing within planetary boundaries

Giorgos Kallis, Jason Hickel, Daniel W. O’Neill et al. · January 1, 2025 · Environmental Science

Abstract

There are increasing concerns that continued economic growth in high-income countries might not be environmentally sustainable, socially beneficial, or economically achievable. In this Review, we explore the rapidly advancing field of post-growth research, which has evolved in response to these concerns. The central idea of post-growth is to replace the goal of increasing GDP with the goal of improving human wellbeing within planetary boundaries. Key advances discussed in this Review include: the development of ecological macroeconomic models that test policies for managing without growth; understanding and reducing the growth dependencies that tie social welfare to increasing GDP in the current economy; and characterising the policies and provisioning systems that would allow resource use to be reduced while improving human wellbeing. Despite recent advances in post-growth research, important questions remain, such as the politics of transition, and transformations in the relationship between the Global North and the Global South.

Free PDF DOI: 10.1016/s2542-5196(24)00310-3