{"title":"Buzzword or breakthrough beyond growth? The mainstreaming of the Wellbeing Economy","authors":"Anders Hayden","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108375","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>A wellbeing economy (WE) has been promoted by many advocates of a post-growth economy. Drawing on the growing WE literature, including detailed case studies of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo), the article asks: does growing support for a WE represent a breakthrough for post-growth economic ideas? Or has mainstreaming the WE concept emptied it of radical post-growth content? The WE experience is interpreted in light of an earlier debate in the international development community over the mainstreaming of radical concepts that were purged of transformative meanings – becoming buzzwords that did not fundamentally alter existing practices. Wellbeing and the WE similarly risk becoming buzzwords: feel-good ideas that are hard to oppose, but which users can fill with their own meanings and political agendas. The WE's post-growth roots are contrasted with the pro-growth meanings given to it by organizations including the OECD and WEGo nations. The WE has nevertheless shown some promise in enabling <em>limited</em> steps in a post-growth direction in WEGo nations (within a broader context of continued pursuit of growth). The article presents – and invites debate on – some possible responses to resist dilution of the WE concept and advance a transformative post-growth vision.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002726/pdfft?md5=15fe88b84808ec7e014d3a9f54b55ef2&pid=1-s2.0-S0921800924002726-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002726","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A wellbeing economy (WE) has been promoted by many advocates of a post-growth economy. Drawing on the growing WE literature, including detailed case studies of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo), the article asks: does growing support for a WE represent a breakthrough for post-growth economic ideas? Or has mainstreaming the WE concept emptied it of radical post-growth content? The WE experience is interpreted in light of an earlier debate in the international development community over the mainstreaming of radical concepts that were purged of transformative meanings – becoming buzzwords that did not fundamentally alter existing practices. Wellbeing and the WE similarly risk becoming buzzwords: feel-good ideas that are hard to oppose, but which users can fill with their own meanings and political agendas. The WE's post-growth roots are contrasted with the pro-growth meanings given to it by organizations including the OECD and WEGo nations. The WE has nevertheless shown some promise in enabling limited steps in a post-growth direction in WEGo nations (within a broader context of continued pursuit of growth). The article presents – and invites debate on – some possible responses to resist dilution of the WE concept and advance a transformative post-growth vision.
期刊介绍:
Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership.
Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.