Economics for Rebels

Jason Hickel, advocate for Degrowth, discusses the solutions proposed by Degrowth to achieve sustainability and equality. Topics include challenging the effectiveness of capitalism in poverty reduction, addressing inequalities in energy and resource use, tools for closing the inequality gap, and the colonial dimensions of the ecological crisis.

In a world where we acknowledge ecological boundaries, consumption patterns must change. Many ecological economists would argue that not only the way we consume but the way we work must also change. Leaving behind the overriding aim of economic growth at all costs means that work needs not only to be perceived differently but also distributed differently. A common suggestion that occurs in these discussions is the necessary reduction of working hours. Stefanie Gerold explains us why.

More and more of the rich and famous are taking up climate activism and try to convince the world that we all need to act now. But what is their message? Ecological economics is about realising that business-as-usual no longer works. Instead of techno-optimism, we need real system change. But what exactly are climate elites saying? What is the role of philanthropy in climate politics? And how does this all feed into sustainability transitions? Do they help our cause or just defer fundamental change? Today’s guest, Edouard Morena helps us figure this all out.

A common argument in favour of capitalism is that the world has seen unprecedented rise in living standards in the past 200 years: no more dangerous jobs, better access to education and health services, significant drops in the prices of basic provision, higher life expectancy, less famine. So, can we also argue that all this is worth it even at the expense of environmental degradation? Doughnut economics is about finding the right balance: the safe and just space where human societies can operate on local and global levels. Today’s guest, Andrew Fanning with his co-researchers has studied how nations are doing in striking this balance. See the results for all countries over time: https://goodlife.leeds.ac.uk You can also access the article using this link: https://rdcu.be/cBzvG

To stay within planetary boundaries, our consumption patterns must change. Could a provocative term like sustainable hedonism help us transform ourselves and our economic realities  towards ecological sustainability while still insisting that we can live a good life? Today’s guest, Orsolya Lelkes certainly believes so.

Since the establishment of agricultural societies, humans have turned themselves into a super-organism that is now jeopardising not only its own existence but also the survival of many other species. Our capacity to organise ourselves, to divide labour, to even sacrifice individual gains for the benefits of humanity has trapped us in a system that is expansionary and full of co-dependencies. The jury is still out whether we can turn this around and once again become just one of the species that occupy this Earth. Today’s guest Lisi Krall explains us what ultrasociality is. Look out for her new book entitled Better harvest: Inquiry into the war between economy and the Earth coming out in Spring 2022.

Ecological economics is highly critical of mainstream economic thinking and provides new approaches and new solutions to how we could transform our world. However, currently millions of young economists leave their education without even the slightest chance of realising that what they had been offered is a mere indoctrination with mainstream ideas without real critical thinking or alternatives. Today’s guest is J. Christopher Proctor, and we talk about Rethinking Economics and other student movements that demand plurality in economics education.

Ecological economics is a field that historically evolved from discourses of people from many disciplines. Finally, ecologists and economists were in dialogue with each other on how to transform the world to respect planetary boundaries. Today’s guest Clive Spash argues, however, that “the importance of social, political, ethical and institutional factors is something which ecologists are not trained to detect, and economists are trained to neglect”. The way forward can only be social ecological economics where the necessity of human behavioural change is not overlooked. With Clive Spash we talk about humans, values, structures, institutions, politics, science and rebellions in social ecological economics.

Not extracting more resources than what Earth can sustainably provide means that our consumption patterns must also change. However, even common sense suggests that if we put caps on resource use, the question “who can use how much of what” will become pressing. Today’s guest is Beth Stratford, and we will talk about the necessity to diffuse rentier power and redistribute economic rents to mitigate threats of economic instability, inequality and insecurity that could otherwise arise from scaling down our consumption.

The relevance of Karl Polányi’s insights on social and economic transformation to ecological transformations has long been established. At the core of Polányi’s work were the processes that drive the relationship between state and market, namely commodification and decommodification, particularly the three fictitious commodities of land, labour and money. Understanding decommodification in the heart of the ecological crisis is of vital importance as no ecological sustainability can be achieved when commodifying nature, and no social sustainability is possible when commodifying humans. Today’s guest is Peadar Kirby and Logan Stranchock and we will talk about decommodification not just in theory but also in practice.