Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives

Description

The discourse of ‘green growth’ has recently gained ground in environmental governance deliberations and policy proposals. It is presented as a fresh and innovative agenda centred on the deployment of engineering sophistication, managerial acumen and market mechanisms to redress the environmental and social derelictions of the existing development model. But the green growth project is deeply inadequate, whether assessed against criteria of social justice or the achievement of sustainable economic life upon a materially finite planet. This volume outlines three main lines of critique. First, it traces the development of the green growth discourse quaideology. It asks: what explains modern society’s investment in it, why has it emerged as a master concept in the contemporary conjuncture, and what social forces does it serve? Second, it unpicks and explains the contradictions within a series of prominent green growth projects. Finally, it weighs up the merits and demerits of alternative strategies and policies, asking the vital question: ‘if not green growth, then what?’ Gareth Dale teaches politics at Brunel University. His publications include books on Karl Polanyi, the GDR and Eastern Europe, and international migration. Manu V. Mathai is assistant professor in the School of Development at Azim Premji University. He received his PhD in energy and environmental policy from the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. He researches and teaches about the intersection of energy, environment and human development. Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira teaches at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-EAESP and FGV-EBAPE) as well as the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPEAD-UFRJ) and Fudan University, Shanghai. He is also a visiting research fellow at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH), Kuala Lumpur. He was assistant director and senior research fellow at the United Nations University (UNU-IAS) from August 2009 to 2015. His academic interests are in the political economy of sustainable development, particularly in patterns of environmental governance and in the implementation of global policies at the local level.