John Barry on "Degrowth, Green Growth, or Greening Growth: Discourses of Green Political Economy"
Lunchtime Colloquium
09.07.2015 12:00 – 14:00
Location: Katholische Hochschulgemeinde (KHG), Leopoldstr. 11, 1st Floor
John Barry (Queen's University Belfast) will present on "Degrowth, Green Growth, or Greening Growth: Discourses of Green Political Economy."
Ever since the "Limits to Growth" report in the early 1970s, there has been a long-standing tension within green political economy and the politics of sustainability between those who claim a sustainable economy is necessarily a non-growing "steady state" one, and those who hold that technological innovation can ensure a growing economy with reduced ecological, energy, resource and pollution impacts. This lecture will explore some of the scientific and normative issues, concepts and political strategic considerations of the range of positions on this continuum from modern "decroissance/degrowth" arguments to debates about "green growth" (greening business as usual) and "greening growth" (differentiating economic growth). It will also consider the larger issue of whether from global and distributive justice and global sustainability points of view; it is time to seriously question the objective of undifferentiated, GDP-measured economic growth as a permanent feature of the economy within the "minority" high-consumption world.
The Lunchtime Colloquium is free and open to the public.
Snacks are served at 12:00; the lecture starts at 12:30.
For more information on the Lunchtime Colloquium series, please click here.