Source
doi:10.3138/jccpe-2023-0004 — original publication (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Summary
Savini (2024) distinguishes four terms frequently conflated in urban sustainability policy: post-growth (an approach rejecting GDP-led growth), degrowth (an agenda for material and consumption reduction with redistribution), doughnut economics (a tool for identifying reduction targets and social equality floors), and circular economy (a business model that can implement degrowth only if it combines reduction with social equality). Drawing on European city examples — Amsterdam (doughnut co-designed with civil society, 2019), Copenhagen, and Barcelona — the paper argues that post-growth urban strategies require combining material reduction with social justice, and that terminological confusion in policy settings prevents actionable interventions.
Key thesis insights
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Core taxonomy: four distinct concepts — “Post-growth is an approach, the doughnut is a tool, degrowth is an agenda, and circular economy is a business model.” This one-sentence taxonomy provides essential definitional clarity for the thesis theoretical chapter: post-growth = critique of GDP expansion; degrowth = concrete agenda of reduction + redistribution; doughnut = planetary boundary / social floor framework; CE = implementation mechanism that may or may not serve degrowth depending on whether reduction targets accompany efficiency measures. LIT_027
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Absolute decoupling has not been achieved — Post-growth thinking is grounded in the evidence that no society has achieved absolute decoupling of GDP from environmental degradation (emissions and material footprint) at global scale. This empirical claim underpins the argument that efficiency improvements and green growth are structurally insufficient — material reduction, not just cleaner production, is required. Directly relevant to the thesis critique of techno-centric self-sufficiency approaches that assume continued growth is compatible with ecological sustainability. LIT_027
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Cities as experimental sites for post-growth policy — Amsterdam (doughnut framework co-produced with civil society 2019), Copenhagen, and Barcelona (cooperatives, reduced evictions, public services) demonstrate that city and community-level administrations can pioneer post-growth frameworks ahead of national policy — paralleling Bibri et al.’s finding (LIT_023) and the thesis argument that community scale is the appropriate unit for trialling alternative models. LIT_027
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Circular economy’s double face — CE is simultaneously the most business-friendly and most co-optable of the four concepts: without reduction targets and social equality commitments it is merely resource efficiency within a growth economy, not a post-growth strategy. This extends LIT_016’s critique of the CE “growth machine” (LIT_016): CE is a mechanism, not a goal — its alignment with degrowth is conditional, not inherent. LIT_027
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