Debt and inequality in postgrowth economies: lessons from history - Tilman Hartley

Economies organised around growth experience terrible welfare outcomes when growth rates decline, leading postgrowth economics to study mechanisms for mitigating these impacts. Two of the biggest challenges to postgrowth economics are debt and inequality, both of which are conventionally addressed through economic growth. So how can we study these questions empirically, given economies have consistently been growing since the industrial revolution? Today’s interviewee is Dr Tilman Hartley, an ecological economist and economic historian whose work has explored how pre-industrial, low- or no-growth societies dealt with these major economic challenges. Whilst today’s growth-oriented societies seem inevitable now, we often forget that the majority of human civilisations throughout history experienced almost no economic growth – so there’s rich data out there, if you know where to look. Edited by Aidan Knox

Om Podcasten

The world is on fire. We have to radically and rapidly transform every aspect of society to stay within 1.5 degrees of global warming. How is this possible? And how do we do this in a way that is fair? Ecological economists integrating ecological and critical social perspectives have long been working on ideas to bring about just sustainability transformations. This podcast aims at communicating these ideas in order to open them to critical discussion, from global problems to people’s everyday lives.