A Future Beyond Growth

Haydn Washington is a Visiting Fellow in Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (Science) at UNSW (University of New South Wales) Australia. Paul Twomey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Built Environment at UNSW (University of New South Wales) Australia.

Foreword: Setting Things Straight for the Steady State Introduction: Why the growth economy is broken Section 1: Population – The heresy of numbers 1. A population perspective on the steady state economy 2. Population – better not bigger 3. Nine Population Strategies to Stop Short of 9 Billion 4. Choosing a Planet of Life Section 2: Throughput and consumerism – a key elephant in the room 5. Re-engineering Cultures to Create a Sustainable Civilization 6. Sustainable business – what should it be? Circular economy and the ‘business of subversion’ 7. Peak Mining – stepping down from high resource use Section 3: Key aspects of a steady state economy 8. What is the steady state economy? 9. The Physical Pathway to a Steady-State Economy 10. Relating the steady state economy to the circular, blue and green economies 11. The relationship between SSE and economic stability, social equity and ecological sustainability 12. The Genuine Progress Indicator: An indicator to guide the transition to a steady-state economy 13. Capitalism and the Steady State: Uneasy Bedfellows Section 4: Ethics and a ‘message from the future’ 14. Sustainable Development vs. Sustainable Biosphere 15. ‘Message from the future’ Section 5: Policy for change 16. Degrowth as a transition strategy 17. Strategies for transition to a ‘future beyond growth’ Conclusion: The endless growth myth – simplicity and complexity