Growth - do we need it and can we learn to live without it?

Overview & Synopsis

So, do we need growth and might we learn to live without it? Nearly all of us who write regularly for SPERI Comment have at least nodded in the direction of the need to think beyond growth in some way. But we have typically left it at that, with the question of what 'beyond growth' actually means left unresolved. In fact, most of us (and I include myself here) have done rather worse than that - in that having identified the need to think beyond growth we have then reverted to the more familiar (and simpler) task of considering how growth (albeit a more sustainable growth) might be restored to our ailing economies. We all know this won't do (...).