Crisis in the habitat of the economic growth monster
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to offer a new view on economic growth and use this view to add to the explanation of economic growth as a powerful agent that determines policies regarding urgent issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on analysis of scholarship and media, interviews and observations in a multi-sited ethnography of economic growth.
Findings
The article argues that the circulation of economic growth has contributed to a shaping of institutions and language to an extent where environmental policy proposals framed as harmful to economic growth can easily be rejected. Furthermore, the article offers an operationalisation of the term ecologisation by promoting a new inclusive language in decision-making.
Originality/value
The paper fills a gap in literature by offering an empirical philosophical take on economic growth and by offering a suggestion for the operationalisation of the term ecologisation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author thanks two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. The author also thanks Inge Røpke, Andreas Birkbak, Torben Elgaard Jensen and Dan O’Neill for useful comments and references. The research was conducted with support from The Velux Foundation.
Citation
Urhammer, E. (2014), "Crisis in the habitat of the economic growth monster", On the Horizon, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 308-317. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-07-2014-0025
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited