Economics for Rebels

Ecological economists all over the world attempt to find the right paths to transcend our currently unsustainable and unjust economic practices. Some are more radical in their proposed measures than others. Today’s guest, Anitra Nelson argues that „monetary values and activities are the key stumbling block to us achieving socio-political and economic justice and sustainability on Earth”. Hence, she proposes to do away with money altogether.

Degrowth is a research field and a social movement that aims to transcend the primacy of economic growth and transition societies to an ecologically more sustainable and socially more just world. Overcoming our environmental sustainability hurdles through mainstream approaches like eco-modernisation does not even try to tackle the problems of social injustices like inequality. Our guest, Jason Hickel argues that the root of environmental and social problems is the same and through Degrowth we can address both of them at the same time. In this episode we talk about the solutions suggested by Degrowth to both sustainability and more equality.

Herman Daly, one of the founders of ecological economics, died on the 28th of October 2022 at the age of 84. His work questioning the pursuit of economic growth and articulating the alternative of a steady-state economy, has been foundational to sustainability science. Daly observed that mainstream economics completely omits the natural world and in reality, the economy is not an isolated system, but a subsystem of the biosphere. All of the resources used by the economy come from the environment, and all of the wastes produced by it return to the environment. Hence, economic activity can be analysed not only in terms of flows of money, but also in terms of flows of biophysical resources and social outcomes. Moreover, the finitude of the biosphere implies that there are limits to how large the physical economy within it can grow. Daly argued that we have in fact moved from an “empty world” to a “full world”. In this end of year episode we are paying tribute to Herman Daly. Alexandra Köves talks to Dan O'Neill, the President of the European Society for Ecological Economics in an episode that covers not just an incredibly rich life's work but most of the basic concepts of ecological economics. Edited by Aidan Knox.

We are pleased to kick off season 4 by talking about what ecological economists need to know about human behaviour. Our guide to these issues is Kristian Steensen Nielsen, a behavioural scientist and assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School focusing on the role of behaviour change in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity. Kristian specialises in identifying the feasibility and scalability of initiatives to change behaviour, understanding how individual behavior changes can contribute to limiting ecological damages.

It is often argued that it was market-based capitalism that made agriculture so efficient that it enabled the eradication of hunger globally. This claim is shadowed by the incredible environmental degradation that was caused by industrial agriculture in the last centuries. Hence, due demand arises that we should keep the world fed through sustainable means. Our guest today, Pablo Tittonell claims that this is possible through agroecology where we combine agricultural and ecological knowledge to create food while taking care of nature’s amazingly creative and generous provisioning and regenerative systems. Hosted by Alexandra Köves. Edited by Aidan Knox.