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Welfare in a Global Steady-State Economy

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Postgrowth and Wellbeing

Abstract

This chapter asks which kinds of institutions could support wellbeing in the context of sustainable postgrowth, especially in periods of far-reaching social change. It discusses core principles for the achievement of a steady-state economy—including a sustainable scale of material throughput and social equality, followed by considerations of the role of spatial scales—the requirement to share and coordinate responsibility for transitions towards postgrowth across global, national, regional and local levels. It also considers a range of policy proposals that have been made to support wellbeing under postgrowth, focusing on macroeconomic steering, inequality/redistribution, minimum and maximum incomes, carbon rationing, consumption, working time reduction, work–life balance as well as population/migration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Milena Büchs

  2. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Max Koch

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  1. Milena Büchs
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  2. Max Koch
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Correspondence to Milena Büchs .

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Büchs, M., Koch, M. (2017). Welfare in a Global Steady-State Economy. In: Postgrowth and Wellbeing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59903-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59903-8_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59902-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59903-8

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