Ecological Economics: Critical Perspectives
This chapter reviews ecological economics, describing its differences from orthodox environmental economics and similarities with other critical approaches in economics, especially institutional economics. Through its critical and interdisciplinary practi
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Ecological Economics: Critical Perspectives
Ecological economics is described and discussed in this chapter from an interdisciplinary, social-ecological perspective, asking which ideas, concepts and knowledge from ecological economics are relevant to sustainable development? For a systematic overview of the intellectual history of ecological economics, its themes, approaches and methodologies, the textbooks and handbooks reviewed at the end of the chapter are useful as complementary sources. Key themes of ecological economics that are relevant to the future discourse and transition to sustainability include the critique of economic growth and the assessment of green or sustainable growth that develop in the sustainability discourse and in the policy process. With its search for alternatives to growth, guided by ideas about degrowth and transformation to a post-growth society, ecological economics influences the sustainability process; its critique of markets and technologies as the main instruments for achieving sustainability helps to clarify the limits of economic research and knowledge on sustainable development. With the development of new economic and non-economic instruments for sustainability governance, ecological economics participates in the development of interdisciplinary instruments, for example ecological indicators to measure the progress of sustainable development. It becomes part of an interdisciplinary knowledge base for understanding changing social and biophysical realities. The multiple sources and variants of ecological economics are shown in Fig. 6.1.
© The Author(s) 2020 K. Bruckmeier, Economics and Sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56627-2_6
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6 Ecological Economics: Critical Perspectives Sources and influences - economics: Classical political economy (Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Marx), Podolinski controversy (physical economics)), Institutional economics (Polanyi, Kapp, Lowe, Bromley), critique of growth Ecological Marxism (O´Connor, Burkett) Founders: Georgesu-Roegen (bioeconomics, thermodynamics), Boulding, Daly, Martinez-Alier Themes •Reintegration of ecology and economics •Physical resource extraction •Economic and ecological distribution conflicts •Commons and open access resources
Sources and influences – ecology: interdisciplinary ecology, natural sciences: General systems theory, systems ecology, coevolution of natural and social systems (Norgaard), Politcal ecology, social ecology (societal metabolism)
Concepts relevant for sustainability • Development and growth • Sustainable degrowth • Steady state • Full earth
Controversies • Degrowth, postgrowth, decommodification • Exiting the economy, economism as mindest • Tragedy of the commons, tragedy of enclosures • TEEB, TRIPS
Fig. 6.1 Ecological economics: sources and variants
6.1
Ecological Economics in a Historical Perspective
Ecological economics is part of a variety of critical and interdisciplinary approaches in economics with which it shares ideas, concepts and critical assessments of the state
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