Nick Fitzpatrick, ESEE Student Rep, explores degrowth policies in new paper
Nick Fitzpatrick and co-authors Tim Parrique and Inês Cosme conducted a systematic mapping of degrowth policies in academic literature in new paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Productions.
“Exploring degrowth policy proposals: A systematic mapping with thematic synthesis”
This new researcch paper is a systematic mapping and thematic synthesis of the entire degrowth literature for policy proposals, a first of it’s kind.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132764
Guided by the “ROSES” methodology, the authors reviewed over 1,166 texts (articles, books, book chapters, and student theses) referring to degrowth.
446 of these (38%) included specific policy proposals.
The result is 530 proposals (50 goals, 100 objectives, 380 instruments) focusing on degrowth.
The authors divided these proposals into 13 themes – culture and education, energy and environment, food, governance and geopolitics, indicators, inequality, finance, production and consumption, science and technology, tourism, trade, urban planning, and work.
What are the key findings?
- Some proposals are highly detailed, most are not.
- Some proposals are more popular than others.
- Most proposals focus more on the what and not the how, often forgetting the transition.
- Degrowth is increasingly diverse.
- Most policies are studied in isolation.
The #Top10 degrowth policies include:
- 1. Universal basic income
- 2. Work-time reduction
- 3. Job guarantees w/ living wage
- 4. Maximum income cap
- 5. Deliberative forums
- 6. Not-for-profit models
- 7. Declining caps on resource use + emissions
- 8. Reclaiming the commons
- 9. Ecovillages
- 10. Housing cooperatives
You can access the paper here or ask Nick directly for a copy.
Exploring degrowth policy proposals: A systematic mapping with thematic synthesis