Stylus/Earthscan - Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet

Prosperity Without Growth

Economics for a Finite Planet

Tim Jackson

Hardback: 978 1 84407 894 3
Price: $22.50

Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
December 2009 , 286 pp., 5 1/2" x 8"

Prosperity without Growth challenges the embedded, unquestioned assumptions of the global policy of growth and shows that it is necessary—and possible—to have increased and widespread prosperity without economic growth.

The modern economy is reliant on economic growth for stability. When growth falters, politicians panic, businesses fail, people lose jobs, and recession looms. Tim Jackson argues, however, that continual growth is just not possible, not sustainable—to believe so is ignoring our knowledge of the finite resource base and fragile ecology in which we live.

The book starts with a compelling analysis of the consequences—for the planet and for people’s wellbeing—of the relentless pursuit of economic growth and material goods. It illustrates why a return to business as usual after the current financial crisis is not an option. Prosperity for a few founded on ecological destruction and persistent social injustice is no foundation for a civilized society.

The current economic crisis presents a unique opportunity to invest in change and a future that delivers lasting prosperity for the predicted 9 billion people who will inhabit the earth in 2050. The author—a leading expert and advisor to the UK government—concludes by outlining pathways towards a sustainable economy. It involves radically changing our “shop until you drop” mentality as well as engaging other disruptive economic practices. Jackson doesn’t claim this will be easy, but points out that while action is urgent, it is possible.

The book opens up dialogue on the most urgent task of our times—the challenge of a new prosperity encompassing our ability to flourish as human beings—within the ecological limits of a finite planet.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
Forewords by Herman E. Daly, Bill McKibben, Mary Robinson and Pavan Sukdev
1) Prosperity Lost
2) The Age of Irresponsiblity
3) Redefining Prosperity
4) The Dilemma of Growth
5) The Myth of Decoupling
6) The Iron Cage of Consumerism
7) Keynesianism and the ‘Green New Deal’
8) Ecological Macro-economics
9) Flourishing – Within Limits
10) Governance for Prosperity
11) The Transition to a Sustainable Economy
12) A Lasting Prosperity
Appendices
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Notes
References

Teachers - Request Exam Copy

Reading Group Guide

Sample Chapter

Earthscan's Media Website

Meet the Author - Tim Jackson

Tim Jackston Speaking at COP15

New York Times Article

Treehugger Review

Press Kit

Reviews & Endorsements:

'Tim Jackson's book simply resets the agenda for Western society. It is both radical and timely. The choice is clear - either remake capitalism as he suggests or deal with the consequences of our old ways.'
- Bernie Bulkin

"a challenge to mainstream economic thinking that is both accessible and robustly argued."
- Financial Times (U.S. Edition)

"This is one of the most brilliant analyses I've seen. It is a thoughtful and action-oriented masterpiece, with an eye open to how to overcome resistance to the task ahead."
- Arnold Tukker , Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research

"Stimulating and timely. This is the best attempt I've seen to build a trans-disciplinary critique of economic growth, with prescriptions based in economic theory."
- Ronan Palmer , The Environment Agency, Chief Economist

"Endless growth on a finite planet, or endless misery-spreading recession, both represent impossible futures. Here are some very powerful steps towards a possible, indeed a very hopeful, alternate outcome!"
- Bill McKibben , author of Deep Economy

"What makes it unthinkable to stop growth even though it is killing us? Tim Jackson boldly confronts the structural Catch-22 that drives this madness and proposes in this lucid, persuasive, and blessedly readable book how we might begin to get off the fast track to self-destruction. Don't miss it!"
- Dianne Dumanoski , author of The End of the Long Summer and co-author of Our Stolen Future

"We were delighted when Professor Jackson spoke at our July Meeting at Lloyds Banking HQ in London. He endorsed the feelings of many in the BCSD-UK that business as usual is not an option. His clear and concise challenge of what is considered convention is timely and highly appropriate."
- David Middleton , Business Council for Sustainable Development UK, CEO

"Prosperity without Growth says it all: informatively, clearly, inspiringly, critically and constructively, starting from the very troubled, unsustainable and unsatisfying economy we have today and providing a robust combination of suggestions for going toward a sustainable economy and fulfilling lives."
- Richard Norgaard , University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Energy and Resources

"Rising consumption may not be sustainable, due to climate change, energy shortfalls, and to social and psychological harms. In this compelling argument, Tim Jackson shows how urgent it is to think of what might replace it, and what to aim for."
- Avner Offer , author of Challenge of Affluence, Professor of Economic History at Oxford

"The idea that today's model of consumption-driven economic growth will secure sustainable, equitable and decent lives for 9 billion people between now and 2050 is literally laughable. We've pretty much screwed the Planet doing it that way for just the first billion. The refusal of all the major parties even to acknowledge this incontrovertible reality, let alone explore its implications, is disgraceful. Prosperity Without Growth is the first book in a long time to go after the complacency and dishonesty that lies at the heart of contemporary politics, and provides in the process a brilliant and compelling account of the crucial importance of the growth debate."
- Jonathon Porritt , former chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

"Provokes official thought on the unthinkable. No small accomplishment! I hope this gets the serious attention it deserves."
- Professor Herman Daly , and recipient of the Honorary Right Livelihood Award (Sweden's alternative to the Nobel Prize) , author of Steady-State Economics

"A vital, much-needed, and timely work that deserves to be widely read, this is more than a brilliant treatise on the difficulties of developing a truly sustainable economy. It is also an important contribution to the increasingly urgent debate over the nature of the good life and the good society."
- Professor Colin Campbell , University of York, Emeritus Professor of Sociology

"Economic growth is both unsustainable on a finite planet and undesirable in its failure to continue to improve real welfare. What we need is true prosperity without growth. Why we must have this and how it can be achieved are compellingly explained in this essential work. It is not sacrifice to adopt the measures advocated. It is a sacrifice of our current and future well-being not to."

- Dr. Robert Costanza , Director, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, Gordon and Lulie Gund Professor of Ecological Economics

"Tim Jackson refutes doctrinaire economist's reckless mantra that growth is the panacea. Prosperity without Growth's hugely encouraging and thrilling theme is that humanity can prosper without growth. In fact there is no other way left to us. We have so overfilled our finite planet that the sources of our raw materials and the sinks for our wastes are both damaged. Jackson's clear and practical vision leads the burgeoning De-Growth movement with Jonathon Porritt, Peter Victor, Herman Daly and Roefie Hueting, all in 2009."
- Dr. Robert Goodland , winner of World Conservation Union's Coolidge Medal of Honor, 2008, former Environmental and Social Adviser to the World Bank Group

"Tim Jackson cuts through the official cant and wishful thinking to tell us what we have refused to admit - we cannot preserve a habitable planet and pursue endless economic growth at the same time. In an era when all ideologies have failed, this book lays out the basis for the only viable political philosophy for the 21st century."
- Clive Hamilton , Professor of Public Ethics, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia., author of Growth Fetish

"If you want to understand why current growth centric economics is not fit for purpose then read this book. This is the clearest and most important contribution to proving it's time to rethink growth economics in order to live the low carbon, poverty free and one planet life we all need and want."
- Alan Knight , Founder of Singleplanetliving

"In the teeth of the economic crisis, Tim Jackson has written the most important book that could possibly be written now. Economic growth may be the world's secular religion, but as Jackson eloquently describes, it is a god that is failing today - underperforming for most of the world's people and, for those of us in affluent societies, creating more problems than it is solving. It destroys the environment, fuels a ruthless international search for energy and other resources, and rests on a manufactured consumerism that is not meeting the deepest human needs. Jackson therefore calls upon us not just to restore the economy but to reinvent it, and to realize a true prosperity beyond growth. In this pathbreaking book, Jackson offers a bold agenda for system change."

- James Gustave Speth , author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis

"Jackson's cutting edge research has already begun to redefine the debate about how to achieve a future of human and planetary well-being."
- Juliet Schor , Boston College

"A must-read....Bold, original and comprehensive."
- Anthony Giddens , London School of Economics

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