Economic Growth as Social Problem: The Case of Climate Change

Abstract

The pursuit of economic growth¹ has become one of the principal policy objectives in almost every country in the world, a measurement not only of the “economic performance” of a country but also of its “development” in more general terms. Despite increasing doubts concerning the capability of GDP as an appropriate measurement of societal development and the associated need to complement it with other types of measurement (Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitoussi, 2009) and the fact that various social practices relevant for human welfare are not covered in the GDP—in particular, voluntary work, unpaid housework, and illegal trades, as well as environmental damage and the depletion of natural resources—scholars normally do not question economic growth as a top priority of policymaking and a key provider of welfare. This chapter will question this view and, by applying a socio ecological perspective and using the example of climate change (CC), argue that—in particular circumstances and at a certain developmental stage that Western countries have reached—economic growth can and should be regarded as something that undermines human welfare and, hence, is a social problem. First, it offers a dynamic and relational concept of social problems that situates these within the context of changing societal power relationships and associated hegemonic ideas.