The Hegemony of Growth

Matthias Schmelzer is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. His areas of interests include transnational social and economic history, social movements, and the history of capitalism.

Introduction; Setting the stage: a historical introduction to the OECD; Part I. Paradigm in the Making: The Emergence of Economic Growth as the Key Economic Policy Norm (1948–59): 1. Measuring growth: the international standardization of national income accounting; 2. Propagating growth: from reconstruction and stability to 'selective expansion' and 'productivity'; 3. 'Expand or die': international economic mandarins and the transnational harmonization of growth policies; Part II. Paradigm at Work: A 'Temple of Growth for Industrialized Countries' in Action (1960–8): 4. Power, progress, and prosperity: growth as universal yardstick and the OECD's 1961 growth target in perspective; 5. Boosting growth: the Western 'growth conscience' and policies in the name of accelerated growth; 6. Replicating growth: the 'development of others' and the hegemony of donor countries; Part III. Paradigm in Discussion: The 'Problems of Modern Society', Environment, and Welfare (1969–74): 7. Quantity in question: challenging the hegemony of growth and the OECD-Club of Rome nexus; 8. Reclaiming growth: organizational dynamics and the 'dialectic' of qualitative growth; 9. Quantifying quality: managing the environmental costs of growth and the difficult quest for 'gross national well-being'; Epilogue: paradigm remade (1975–2011); Conclusion: provincializing growth.