🗓️ Session 8: The growth vs. degrowth debate

Author

Affiliation

Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch

EUF and JKU

Abstract

This session engages with the growth vs. degrowth debate. In the accompanying group work, you develop policy sets for your selected country or region.

🖥️ Lecture Slides

📽️ Slides will be made available after the lecture.

📖 Up-front Reading

Please read before the session:

• Hickel and Kallis (2020)
• Warlenius (2023)

🏆 Further readings

• Hickel (2020)
• Jackson et al. (2024)
• Schmelzer (2023)
• Warlenius (2025)

References

Hickel, J. (2020) “What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification,” Globalizations 1–7, doi:10.1080/14747731.2020.1812222.

Hickel, J. and Kallis, G. (2020) “Is Green Growth Possible?” New Political Economy 25(4): 469–486, doi:10.1080/13563467.2019.1598964.

Jackson, T., Hickel, J. and Kallis, G. (2024) “Confronting the dilemma of growth. A response to Warlenius (2023),” Ecological Economics 220: 108089, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108089.

Schmelzer, M. (2023) “From Luddites to limits? Towards a systematization of growth critiques in historical perspective,” Globalizations 20(3): 447–464, doi:10.1080/14747731.2022.2106044.

Warlenius, R. H. (2023) “The limits to degrowth: Economic and climatic consequences of pessimist assumptions on decoupling,” Ecological Economics 213: 107937, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107937.

Warlenius, R. H. (2025) “Decoupling pessimism and the dilemma of growth. A reply to Jackson et al (2024),” Ecological Economics 232: 108580, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108580.