Reorganizing Work, Food, and Welfare systems to secure good lives for all within planetary boundaries.
Today, the claim that growth is necessary for the green transition and for economic security is ungrounded. Ecological breakdown, cost of living pressures, and inequality are interlinked and systemic crises. Tackling them requires transforming the foundations of our economy, as greening business as usual proves insufficient.
A postgrowth economy:
- Meets social needs without overshooting planetary limits;
- Prioritizes care, community, and cooperation over accumulation, extraction and exploitation;
- Gives people the economic security and freedom to live dignified, meaningful lives.
In this upcoming series, Commons Network, together with Oxfam Novib, explores how European countries can break away from dependency on economic growth and prioritize social wellbeing and thriving ecosystems. This series is the product of discussions facilitated by Commons Network and partners in the Postgrowth Pan-European Network since 2023. The network brings together Members of Parliament, trade union representatives, and postgrowth experts to discuss policies and strategies to advance the postgrowth agenda.
How can the European economy meet everyone’s needs within the planetary boundaries? What are existing postgrowth practices across Europe? What role can policies at national and European level play in the just transition? We zoom in on Food, Welfare, and Work beyond growth.
- ‘Food System Beyond Growth’ Here, we debunk the political discourse that pits farmers against the transition to a sustainable and resilient food system. Environmental protection does not need to be traded off for workers’ protection. Rather, European farming must transition to small-scale agroecological food production that is embedded in community economies. Therefore, European policies must regulate against agri-food oligopoly and strive for food sovereignty, at home and abroad.
- ‘Welfare system beyond growth’ Securing a good life for all on a thriving planet is possible if we break the dependency of welfare and income security on growth. Therefore, we need a fair distribution of wealth and resources, substantial public investments in basic services, and the centering of community wealth and practices of care. Policies include progressive taxation and public finance, universal basic incomes, universal basic services, and job guarantees; and practices are drawn from the caring economy.
- ‘Work beyond growth’ We must channel our labour into forms of production that are necessary for human wellbeing and the environmental transition, while paving ways out of exploitative work relations. Through practices and policies such as workplace democracy, workers cooperatives, public job guarantees and worktime reduction, jobs can serve social and environmental wellbeing, instead of capital accumulation and endless economic growth.
Postgrowth creates possibilities for building a new economic narrative and policy agenda, beyond that of the liberal green and the traditionally growthist left. This agenda creates greater wellbeing for all, including essential workers, care-givers and care-workers, the unemployed and workers affected by the transition, and communities affected by climate change and economic insecurity.
In this primer series, Commons Network, together with Oxfam Novib, explores how European countries can break away from dependency on economic growth and prioritize social wellbeing and thriving ecosystems. This series is the product of discussions facilitated by Commons Network and partners in the Postgrowth Pan-European Network since 2023. The network brings together Members of Parliament, trade union representatives, and postgrowth experts to discuss policies and strategies to advance the postgrowth agenda.