Beyond Growth. The Economics of Sustainable Development

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Herman Daly is a prominent advocate for a change in economic thinking in response to the environmental crisis. An iconoclast economist who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank, Daly argues for overturning some basic economic assumptions. He contends that if sustainable development means anything at this historical moment, it requires us to conceive of the economy as part of the ecosystem and to abandon the ideal of economic growth. We need a global understanding of developing welfare that does not entail expansion. These ideas are fundamentally radical, necessitating a rethinking of basic concepts in economic theory, poverty, trade, and population, as Daly demonstrates in careful, accessible detail. These questions have enormous practical consequences. Daly asserts that there is a real struggle to control the meaning of sustainable development, with conventional economists and development thinkers attempting to dilute its significance for their own purposes. Beyond Growth is an argument that will reshape the debate.