Climate & Environment
Post-Growth
Definition
Post-growth is a body of economic thought and policy exploring how societies — particularly high-income ones — can secure wellbeing, equity and ecological stability without relying on continuous aggregate economic growth. It spans degrowth (planned downscaling of throughput in rich economies), agrowth (indifference to GDP as an objective) and steady-state economics, united by the view that growth is neither ecologically sustainable nor a reliable proxy for progress.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Post-Growth” is defined and used.
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Overview
How it is used
The concept informs academic research, policy experiments (wellbeing economy governments in New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland, Wales), European Parliament beyond-growth debates and civil society strategy.
Why it matters
Whether sustainability can be achieved within growth-based economies is arguably the deepest question in the field; post-growth is the coherent articulation of the sceptical position.