Europe in the Postgrowth Era: Towards A sustainable welfare deal
Koch, Max LU
(2025)
In Journal of Common Market Studies
- Abstract
- Europe is confronted with a multiple crisis while coming to grips with its colonial legacy. Given the lack of empirical evidence for sufficient absolute decoupling of gross domestic product (GDP) growth from environmental resource use to stay within planetary limits and meet the Paris climate goals, this article argues that it is unavoidable for the European Union (EU) to enter the postgrowth era and outlines the contours of a ‘sustainable welfare deal’. It first reviews critical issues of the European Green Deal and related EU initiatives. With focus on degrowth and sustainable welfare, the article subsequently zooms in on approaches that substitute GDP growth as overall policy target with environmental and social goals, operationalized... (More)
- Europe is confronted with a multiple crisis while coming to grips with its colonial legacy. Given the lack of empirical evidence for sufficient absolute decoupling of gross domestic product (GDP) growth from environmental resource use to stay within planetary limits and meet the Paris climate goals, this article argues that it is unavoidable for the European Union (EU) to enter the postgrowth era and outlines the contours of a ‘sustainable welfare deal’. It first reviews critical issues of the European Green Deal and related EU initiatives. With focus on degrowth and sustainable welfare, the article subsequently zooms in on approaches that substitute GDP growth as overall policy target with environmental and social goals, operationalized as planetary boundaries and social floors. It also introduces relevant current debates within the growth-critical academic community: complexity and democratic planning, decoupling economic growth and welfare, and the roles of economic elites and democratic governance in social-ecological transformations. The discussion sketches and encourages further debate on a ‘sustainable welfare deal’ as meaningful response to the social-ecological crisis and how it could be integrated in European policy making. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d2686782-dcb6-4dd0-87ab-86bd5f283b72
- author
- Koch, Max
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-03-16
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- European Union, Climate Emergency, Social Inequality, Degrowth, Postgrowth, Sustainable Welfare
- in
- Journal of Common Market Studies
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105000408266
- ISSN
- 0021-9886
- DOI
- 10.1111/jcms.13728
- project
- Postgrowth Welfare Systems
- Economic Elites in the Climate Change Transformation: Practices, justifications and regulations of unsustainable lifestyles in Sweden
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d2686782-dcb6-4dd0-87ab-86bd5f283b72
- date added to LUP
- 2025-03-17 08:53:06
- date last changed
- 2025-05-14 04:00:53
@article{d2686782-dcb6-4dd0-87ab-86bd5f283b72,
abstract = {{Europe is confronted with a multiple crisis while coming to grips with its colonial legacy. Given the lack of empirical evidence for sufficient absolute decoupling of gross domestic product (GDP) growth from environmental resource use to stay within planetary limits and meet the Paris climate goals, this article argues that it is unavoidable for the European Union (EU) to enter the postgrowth era and outlines the contours of a ‘sustainable welfare deal’. It first reviews critical issues of the European Green Deal and related EU initiatives. With focus on degrowth and sustainable welfare, the article subsequently zooms in on approaches that substitute GDP growth as overall policy target with environmental and social goals, operationalized as planetary boundaries and social floors. It also introduces relevant current debates within the growth-critical academic community: complexity and democratic planning, decoupling economic growth and welfare, and the roles of economic elites and democratic governance in social-ecological transformations. The discussion sketches and encourages further debate on a ‘sustainable welfare deal’ as meaningful response to the social-ecological crisis and how it could be integrated in European policy making.}},
author = {{Koch, Max}},
issn = {{0021-9886}},
keywords = {{European Union; Climate Emergency; Social Inequality; Degrowth; Postgrowth; Sustainable Welfare}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Journal of Common Market Studies}},
title = {{Europe in the Postgrowth Era: Towards A sustainable welfare deal}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13728}},
doi = {{10.1111/jcms.13728}},
year = {{2025}},
}