The boards of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and the International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE) express their deep alarm over recent statements from the leadership of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) arguing that research funders should “unequivocally” support economic growth and dismiss alternatives such as post-growth and degrowth research (Westlake, 2025).
Statement in Brief
Silencing critical voices amid escalating ecological breakdown and global injustice is not only short-sighted, but it also undermines the very spirit of scientific inquiry and academic freedom. Supporting diverse and independent perspectives is essential to shaping fair, sustainable, and democratic pathways to our shared prosperity.
Main Statement
In a recent blog post, Stian Westlake, Executive Chair of the ESRC, stated that he is putting economic growth “at the heart” of the council’s refreshed future strategy, and that degrowth-related research should face a high bar to win grants.
The Boards of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) express their utmost concern about such remarks. Not only do they risk narrowing the scope of legitimate scientific inquiry, but they also imply that research funding can be subordinated to the dominant political and economic ideology, whilst suppressing legitimate alternative approaches and undermining academic freedom.
Science shows that humanity is overshooting safe environmental limits, currently crossing six out of nine planetary boundaries (Richardson et al, 2023), and closing in on the seventh. This means that the natural systems sustaining the very existence of our human civilisation are under such strain that we can no longer be certain they will continue to provide the conditions for a good life – even in the short run. Scientific evidence shows that current economies are incredibly inefficient at delivering human well-being within ecological limits (Fanning and Raworth, 2025).
In those parts of the world where basic human needs are met, planetary boundaries are significantly overshot. Conversely, those regions that remain within planetary boundaries face substantial shortcomings in meeting the fundamentals for decent living conditions. This creates massive injustices globally (Dorninger, 2021).
In order to address these problems, we need to look beyond traditional solutions—such as economic growth—that have failed to deliver ecological safety and social justice (Kallis et al, 2025). Degrowth and other post-growth research address precisely these gaps and are therefore crucial for envisioning appropriate economic and social strategies, including policy responses, to enhance human well-being in today’s context. Ecological economics has been dealing with the ecological and social limits to growth for over fifty years and has provided ample evidence for the need of transcending the overwhelming dominance of the current approach.
Scientific revolutions (Kuhn, 1962) always happen when an existing paradigm does not find satisfactory answers to its crises and other scientists start questioning the fundamental presumptions that had long gone unchallenged. Hence, solutions must be sought also beyond the dominant paradigm and academic freedom must be protected for innovative thinking.
In ecological economics, it has long been recognised that economics is a social science and, by its nature inherently value-laden and inseparable from political processes. Yet making economic research subject to specific dominant political ideologies is a slippery slope both for democracy and for humanity’s future.
We urge all research funders to embrace diverse forms of inquiry into solutions to our grand societal challenges.
References
Dorninger, C., Hornborg, A., Abson, D. J., Von Wehrden, H., Schaffartzik, A., Giljum, S., … & Wieland, H. (2021). Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century. Ecological economics, 179, 106824.
Fanning, A and Raworth, K (2025), Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance, Nature 646, 47-56
Kallis, G., Hickel, J., O’Neill, D. W., Jackson, T., Victor, P. A., Raworth, K., … & Ürge-Vorsatz, D. (2025). Post-growth: the science of wellbeing within planetary boundaries. The lancet planetary health, 9(1), e62-e78
Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
Richardson, K., Steffen, W., Lucht, W., Bendtsen, J., Cornell, S. E., Donges, J. F., … & Rockström, J. (2023). Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. Science advances, 9(37), eadh2458.
Westlake, S (2025), ‘Promoting economic growth’, https://magicsmoke.substack.com/p/promoting-economic-growth