3. Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

The ongoing climate and resource and financial crises underscore the failure of a prosperity model based on growth and dependency on consumption. No ecological uncoupling of economic growth measured in money is in sight. In an expanding economy, “rebound effects” wipe out advances in dematerialisation or ecologisation as result of growing demand. Furthermore, an important finding of the so-called Science of Happiness postulates that once a certain level has been reached, an increase in monetary or material wealth no longer contributes to subjective well-being. It is time to take stock of things: In place of expansive “business-as-usual” policies, it might be worth taking a look at the concept of postgrowth economics, which can actually be sustainable in the long term – albeit of modest dimensions.