Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T17:40:04.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Understanding and Undermining the Growth Paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2017

CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN Open the ORCID record for CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN [Opens in a new window]
CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN*
Affiliation:
Langara College, Vancouver, BC
*
*<[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For three centuries the primary aspiration of Western governments has been constant economic growth but with the Industrial Revolution this objective became troublesome. In the 20th century unprecedented levels of industrial production and social consumption caused palpable harm to humans and the environment. Hannah Arendt and John Kenneth Galbraith turned their pens to such concerns and Bill Mollison and David Holmgren advocated a permaculture approach to growth, one that strives to limit human interference in natural growth processes. Today’s precarious economic and ecological imbalances could be stabilized by a shift in applied growth paradigms, from capitalist to permaculturist.

Depuis trois siècles, les gouvernements occidentaux aspirent à une croissance économique constante. À la suite de la Revolution industrielle, cet objectif est devenu troublant. Au cours du 20e siècle, les niveaux de production et de consommation sans précédent sont devenus manifestement malsains pour les êtres humains et dangereux pour l’environnement. Hannah Arendt et John Kenneth Galbraith se sont intéressés à ce sujet. De même, Bill Mollison et David Holmgren ont recommandé d’appliquer à la croissance économique une stratégie semblable à la permaculture, qui cherche à limiter l’intervention humaine dans les processus naturels de croissance. Les circonstances écologiques et économiques précaires d’aujourd’hui pourraient être stabilisées par un virage appliqué d’un modèle capitaliste à un modèle permaculturiste.

Keywords

ArendtGalbraitheconomicsgrowthpermaculturesharingunemployment
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 559 - 593
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akhtar, Faiza, Lodhi, Suleman A., Kahn, Safdar Shah, and Sarwar, Farhana 2016 “Incorporating permaculture and strategic management for sustainable ecological resource management.” Journal of Environmental Management 179: 31–37.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1958 The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ben-Ami, Daniel 2008 “The Midwife of Miserabilism,” in Spiked (January 25, 2008); available at http://www.spiked-online.com/review_of_books/article/4363#.WJ_GNIWcEZI. Accessed on February 11, 2017.Google Scholar
Bolaño, Roberto 2008 2666, trans. Natasha Wimmer. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.Google Scholar
Broda, Christian, and Parker, Jonathan 2008 “The impact of the 2008 rebates,” in Vox CEPR’s Policy Portal (August 15, 2008); available at http://www.voxeu.org/article/did-2008-us-tax-rebates-work. Accessed on February 13, 2017.Google Scholar
Burrows, Edwin, and Wallace, Mike 1999 Gotham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Robert M. 2000 More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
C-Span 1991 “Road to the White House” (October 27, 1991); available at http://www.c-span.org/video/?23518-1/clinton-campaign-speech. Accessed on July 5, 2017.Google Scholar
Cunningham, Storm 2002 The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier. San Francisco, CA: Barret-Koehler Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Davidow, William H., and Malone, Michael S. 2014 “What Happens to Society When Robots Replace Workers?,” in Harvard Business Review; available at https://hbr.org/2014/12/what-happens-to-society-when-robots-replace-workers. Accessed on May 10, 2017.Google Scholar
Davy, Humphry 1802/1839 A Discourse, Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry, in The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, ed. Davy, John. London: Smith, Elder and Co.Google Scholar
Destutt de Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude 1817/2011 A Treatise on Political Economy , trans. Jefferson, Thomas. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Dreiser, Theodore 1900/1984 Sister Carrie. New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 1867/1966 Crime and Punishment, trans. Magarshak, D.. Middlesex: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Filene, Edward A. 1931 Successful Living In This Machine Age. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Franklin, Ursula 1992 The Real World of Technology. Concord: House of Anansi Press Limited.Google Scholar
Freking, Kevin, and Daly, Matthew 2017 “Congress scraps Obama rules on coal mining, guns,” Associated Press (February 2, 2017); available at https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-02-02/house-gop-aims-to-scrap-obama-rule-on-gun-background-checks. Accessed on July 31, 2017.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John Kenneth 1958 The Affluent Society. Cambridge: Riverside Press.Google Scholar
Grant, George 1986 Technology & Justice. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited.Google Scholar
Hamilton Spectator 2017 “Trump’s approval of Keystone XL means economic growth, jobs for Canada: Trudeau,” in HamiltonNews.com (Tuesday January 24, 2017); available at http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news-story/7083576-trump-s-approval-of-keystone-xl-means-economic-growth-jobs-for-canada-trudeau/. Accessed on January 24, 2017.Google Scholar
Hébert, Robert F., and Link, Albert N. 2009 A History of Entrepreneurship. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Herren, Robert 2004 “Council of Economic Advisers.” EH.net Encyclopedia, ed. Whaples, Robert; available at http://eh.net/encyclopedia/council-of-economic-advisers/. Accessed on February 3, 2017.Google Scholar
Hobson, John A., and Mummery, Alfred 1889 Physiology of Industry: Being an Exposure of Certain Fallacies in Existing Theories of Economics. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Hobson, John A. 1895 The Evolution of Modern Capitalism: A Study of Machine Production. London: Walter Scott, Ltd.Google Scholar
Holmgren, David 2002 Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Hepburn: Holmgren Design Services.Google Scholar
Hume, David 1739–1940/1981 A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huxley, Aldous 1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. New York: Avon Publishing Co., Inc.Google Scholar
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Available at http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Physical-Fitness.aspx. Accessed January 21, 2016.Google Scholar
Keynes, John Maynard 1930/1963 “Economy” and “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” in Essays in Persuasion. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.Google Scholar
Krantz, David 2016 “Shmita Revolution: The Reclamation and Reinvention of the Sabbatical Year,” in 7 Religions 100; available at http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/7/8/100/htm. Accessed on July 31, 2017.Google Scholar
Ikerd, Jon 2001 “Economics of Sustainable Farming,” presented at the HRM of TX Annual Conference 2001, Systems in Agriculture and Land Management, Fort Worth, TX, March 2-3, 2001; available at http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/EconomicsofSustainableFarming.htm. Accessed on February 12, 2017.Google Scholar
Locke, John 1689/1947 “An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government,” in Man and the State: The Political Philosophers, ed. Commins, Saxe and Linscott, Robert N.. New York: Random House, at 55–132.Google Scholar
MacIver, Alice M. 1922 “Saint-Simon and His Influence on Karl Marx,” Economica 6: 238–245.Google Scholar
Madrick, Jeff 2014 Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Malthus, Thomas 1798 An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers. London: J. Johnson, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; available at http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf. Accessed on July 31, 2017.Google Scholar
Manning, Jason “The Midwest Farm Crisis of the 1980s,” in The Eighties Club: The Politics and Pop Culture of the 1980s; available at http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id395.htm. Accessed on February 12, 2007.Google Scholar
Markham, Edwin 1925 “How I Wrote ‘The Man With the Hoe.’ The Dearborn Independent 26(5). Reproduced in http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/markham/reflections.htm. Accessed on August 21, 2016.Google Scholar
McLuhan, Marshall 1951/2001 Mechanical Bride. Berkeley: Ginko Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Morris, Jim 2008 Wall-E. Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1908/1969 “Ecce Homo,” trans. Kauffman, Walter, in On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo. New York: Random House, Inc., at 199–335.Google Scholar
Nordhaus, William. D., and Tobin, James 1972 “Is Growth Obsolete?,” in Economic Research: Retrospect and Prospect, Volume 5, Economic Growth. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., at 1–80.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas 2014 Capital in the Twenty-First Century, trans. Goldhammer, Arthur. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reich, Robert 2016 Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Reich, Robert 2015 “The Share-the-Scraps Economy,” in Robert Reich; available at http://robertreich.org/post/109894095095. Accessed on August 1, 2017.Google Scholar
Reich, Robert 2013 Inequality for All. US: 72 Productions.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 1761/1977 “Discourse on the Origins and the Foundation of Inequality Among Mankind,” in The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, ed. Crocker, Lester G.. New York: Washington Square Press, at 149–258.Google Scholar
Saint-Simon, Henri 1821 Du Système Industriel. Paris: Antoine-Augustin Renouard.Google Scholar
Saint-Simon, Henri 1819/1841 “Parabole de Saint-Simon,” in Oeuvres de Saint-Simon. Paris: Capelle, Libraire-Editeur, at 69–80.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph 1943/2003 Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Matthew D., and Slemrod, Joel 2009 “Did the 2008 Tax Rebates Stimulate Spending?” Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 14753.Google Scholar
Shelley, Mary 1818/1992 Frankenstein. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Smellie, Sarah 2017 “What if the cod came back? The push to reinvent Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishery.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; available at http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/what-if-the-cod-came-back-the-push-to-reinvent-newfoundland-and-labradors-fishery/ar-BBDK4l6?li=AA54rW&ocid=spartandhp. Accessed on July 4, 2017.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam 1776/1979 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed. Campbell, Roy H. and Skinner, Andrew S.. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Sundararajan, Arun 2016 The Sharing Economy. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorstein 1899/2007 The Theory of the Leisure Class. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Veteto, James, and Lockyer, Joshua 2008 “Environmental Anthropology Engaging Permaculture: Moving Theory and Practice Toward Sustainability.” Culture & Agriculture 30 (1-2): 47–58.Google Scholar
Vitorino, Daniele, and Cintra, Dennys 2011 “Consequences of Modern Lifestyle to Health: How to Prevent it? A Review,” in Sedentary Behavior: Physiology, Health Risks and Interventions, ed. Bergen, Maryanne G.. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Chapter 6.Google Scholar
Wells, H.G. 1906 The Future in America. London: Granville Publishing.Google Scholar
Wells, H.G. 1895/1970 The Time Machine. New York: Magnum Books.Google Scholar