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Understanding and Undermining the Growth Paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2017

CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN Open the ORCID record for CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN [Opens in a new window]
CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN*
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Langara College, Vancouver, BC
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Abstract

For three centuries the primary aspiration of Western governments has been constant economic growth but with the Industrial Revolution this objective became troublesome. In the 20th century unprecedented levels of industrial production and social consumption caused palpable harm to humans and the environment. Hannah Arendt and John Kenneth Galbraith turned their pens to such concerns and Bill Mollison and David Holmgren advocated a permaculture approach to growth, one that strives to limit human interference in natural growth processes. Today’s precarious economic and ecological imbalances could be stabilized by a shift in applied growth paradigms, from capitalist to permaculturist.

Depuis trois siècles, les gouvernements occidentaux aspirent à une croissance économique constante. À la suite de la Revolution industrielle, cet objectif est devenu troublant. Au cours du 20e siècle, les niveaux de production et de consommation sans précédent sont devenus manifestement malsains pour les êtres humains et dangereux pour l’environnement. Hannah Arendt et John Kenneth Galbraith se sont intéressés à ce sujet. De même, Bill Mollison et David Holmgren ont recommandé d’appliquer à la croissance économique une stratégie semblable à la permaculture, qui cherche à limiter l’intervention humaine dans les processus naturels de croissance. Les circonstances écologiques et économiques précaires d’aujourd’hui pourraient être stabilisées par un virage appliqué d’un modèle capitaliste à un modèle permaculturiste.

Keywords

ArendtGalbraitheconomicsgrowthpermaculturesharingunemployment

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Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 559 - 593
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Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

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