Paulson, L and Büchs, M (2022) Public acceptance of post-growth: Factors and implications for post-growth strategy. Futures, 143. 103020. p. 103020. ISSN 0016-3287
Abstract
Growing evidence supports the need to re-evaluate the nature and function of our economies in favour of post-growth principles if we are to have a socially and environmentally viable future. This study contributes to the discussion on how to achieve such a future by addressing a remaining gap in the literature about the public acceptance of post-growth, since a viable transition requires public support to validate political actions. Taking a mixed-methods approach, we ask which values and socio-economic characteristics are associated with support for post-growth and why. On average among 34 European countries, 60.5 % of people are in favour of post-growth. Values such as environmentalism, collectivism and post-materialism were found to support post-growth visions of the future, but support for post-growth and these values is lower among disadvantaged people. We conclude that greater emphasis on redistribution and improving opportunities and livelihoods for disadvantaged people in a post-growth economy is key to making such a future more acceptable to them. However, this conflicts with policy preferences and values such as hierarchy, meritocracy, and individualism that tend to be more prominent among people who are well-off.
Metadata
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). | ||||
Keywords: | Post-growth; Acceptance; Values; Socio-economic characteristics; Equality; European Values Study | ||||
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Institution: | The University of Leeds | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications | ||||
Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2022 15:01 | ||||
Last Modified: | 24 Aug 2022 15:01 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2022.103020 |