This Autumn, CUSP and the APPG on Limits to Growth will be hosting a debate to mark the 40th Anniversary of Fred Hirsch’s ‘The Social Limits to Growth’.
In 1977 Fred Hirsch’s acclaimed book made the case that in addition to the ecological limits to economic expansion identified by the Club of Rome, there are important social constraints on the benefits that can be obtained from growth. And these limits, Hirsch argued, make themselves felt much sooner than would the ‘distant and uncertain’ effects of ecological breakdown.
The thesis has gained fresh force in recent years: the post-crisis period in the West has reignited arguments over the distribution of the gains from growth and has highlighted the gap between economic growth and advances in wellbeing. For more information, please see the APPG website.
