A01=Stephen J Macekura
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Author_Stephen J Macekura
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business
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=HD
Category=KCB
Category=KCP
Category=KCZ
Category=N
class
climate change
colonialism
conflict
conservation
COP=United States
decolonization
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
destruction
developing countries
development
economic growth
economics
economy
energy
environment
environmentalism
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eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
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finance
gdp
global warming
globalization
gnp
habitat
history
inequality
inequity
innovation
Language_English
league of nations
macroeconomics
natural resources
nature
needs
nonfiction
PA=Available
policy
politics
poverties
power
Price_€20 to €50
progress
PS=Active
resource management
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Product details
- ISBN 9780226736303
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 04 Nov 2020
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Few ideas in the past century have had wider financial, political, and governmental impact than that of economic growth. The common belief that endless economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product, is not only possible but actually essential for the flourishing of civilization remains a powerful policy goal and aspiration for many. In The Mismeasure of Progress, Stephen J. Macekura exposes a historical road not taken, illuminating the stories of the activists, intellectuals, and other leaders who long argued that GDP growth was not all it was cracked up to be. Beginning with the rise of the growth paradigm in the 1940s and 1950s and continuing through the present day, The Mismeasure of Progress is the first book on the myriad thinkers who argued against growth and the conventional way progress had been measured and defined. For growth critics, questioning the meaning and measurement of growth was a necessary first step to creating a more just, equal, and sustainable world. These critics argued that focusing on growth alone would not resolve social, political, and environmental problems, and they put forth alternate methods for defining and measuring human progress.
In today's global political scene--marked by vast inequalities of power and wealth and made even more fraught by a global climate emergency--the ideas presented by these earlier critics of growth resonate more loudly than ever. Economic growth appealed to many political leaders because it allowed them to avoid addressing political trade-offs and class conflict. It sustained the fiction that humans are somehow separate from nonhuman "nature," ignoring the intimate and dense connections between the two. In order to create a truly just and equitable society, Macekura argues, we need a clear understanding of our collective needs beyond growth and more holistic definitions of progress that transcend economic metrics like GDP.
Stephen J. Macekura is associate professor of international studies at Indiana University's Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.
