Prosperity Without Growth: Foundations For The Economy Of Tomorrow Second Edition

Author: Tim Jackson

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $32.99 AUD
  • : 9781138935419
  • : Routledge
  • : Routledge
  • :
  • : 0.430913
  • : October 2016
  • : 210mm X 148mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 27.99
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : Tim Jackson
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  • : Paperback
  • : 2nd Revised edition
  • :
  • : English
  • : 338.9/27
  • :
  • :
  • : 350
  • : KCG
  • : 22 black white illustrations, 22 black white line drawings
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Barcode 9781138935419
9781138935419

Description

Is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion? In this explosive book, Tim Jackson - a top sustainability adviser to the UK government - makes a compelling case against continued economic growth in developed nations.


 


No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations. But in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it. More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption. Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of economic activity - and there is no evidence to suggest that we can - we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth.


 


Economic heresy? Or an opportunity to improve the sources of well-being, creativity and lasting prosperity that lie outside the realm of the market? Tim Jackson provides a credible vision of how human society can flourish 1/2 within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Fulfilling this vision is simply the most urgent task of our times.


 


This book is a substantially revised and updated version of Jackson's controversial study for the Sustainable Development Commission, an advisory body to the UK Government. The study rapidly became the most downloaded report in the Commission's nine year history when it was launched earlier this year.

Reviews

'It is hard to improve a classic, but Jackson has done it... a clearly written yet scholarly union of moral vision with solid economics.' - Herman Daly, University of Maryland, USA 'I remember exactly where I was when I first read Prosperity Without Growth. It cut through the intellectual clamour with clarity, courage - and hope.' - Naomi Klein, Author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate 'An excellent critical review of mainstream academic thoughts on poverty in the contemporary global system; a convincing illustration of the shortcomings of these thoughts on the case of Canada' - Samir Amin, Professor of Political Economy, Director of Third World Forum and Chair of World Forum For Alternatives, Egypt 'With much of the world in turmoil, calling for higher economic growth is every politician's comfort blanket of choice. But Tim Jackson compellingly urges those politicians to give up their comfort blanket, to re-think our continuing dependence on economic growth, and to start preparing - urgently - for a world where such growth is no longer viable as its environmental cost massively exceeds its benefits. Prosperity Without Growth remains the single most important book addressing this most critical of contemporary challenges.' - Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future, UK. 'Tim Jackson's Prosperity without Growth systematises and renders tangible an essential project few believed to be practical: recovering the dream of shared prosperity and human development through decoupling it from the bandwagon of growth. Essential reading for those refusing to succumb to a dystopic future.' - Yanis Varoufakis, DiEM25 co-founder and Professor of Economics, University of Athens, Greece. 'Tim Jackson has brought his ground-breaking book bang up to date and substantially deepened its arguments. This extensively revised edition sets out more clearly than ever the dimensions of a new and different economics - working for people, planet and prosperity. There isn't a better exposition out there of why and how we need to move beyond growth.' - Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton, Pavilion and a member of the Green Party, UK. 'One of the most important essays of our generation: both visionary and realistic, rooted in careful research and setting out difficult but achievable goals, it gives what we so badly need - an alternative to passivity, short-term selfishness and cynicism.' - Dr Rowan Williams, The Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge University and was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, UK. 'This challenge to the prevailing growth-based economic paradigm confronts an inescapable dilemma: how to reconcile "our aspirations for the good life with the limitations and constraints of a finite planet." Its thoughtful and penetrating critique is enriched by an outline of credible programs to achieve this end. A very valuable contribution to urgent concerns that cannot be ignored.' - Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics, MIT, USA. 'Tim Jackson spearheads the obvious truth that GDP growth is not necessary in order to achieve higher well-being in the rich world. Government intervention can produce the desired result, namely full employment, less inequity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.' - Jorgen Randers, author of "2052 - A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years"(2012) and co-author of "One Percent is Enough. Managing economic growth to reduce unemployment, inequity and greenhouse gas emissions." (2016)

Author description

Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey, UK, and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). For seven years, he was Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission where his work culminated in the publication of the first edition of Prosperity without Growth. In addition to his scientific work, Tim is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.

Table of contents

Foreword to the 1st edition Prologue to the Second Edition 1 The Limits to Growth 2 Prosperity Lost 3 Redefining Prosperity 4 The Dilemma of Growth 5 The Myth of Decoupling 6 The 'Iron Cage' of Consumerism 7 Flourishing - within limits 8 Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow 9 Towards a 'post-growth' macroeconomics 10 Governance for Prosperity 11 A Lasting Prosperity