ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history and main arguments of the mainstream growth paradigm in relation to sustainability, and describes degrowth and steady state economy views. Reducing poverty without growth would require the redistribution of income from rich to poor countries, which is difficult to achieve as the rich are generally more powerful than the poor. One of the reason to question growth is that the indicator used to measure it, GDP, has been widely criticised as a poor indicator of national progress. It is argued that concepts such as the IPAT equation, eco-efficiency, ecological modernisation, and the green economy avoid uncomfortable questions about the role of power, equity and capitalism in sustainability issues. The view of the economy as a subsystem of the environment that is conveyed by Ecological Economics is rooted in the laws of thermodynamics. Neoclassical economics dominates the sustainability discourse, reducing environmental problems to technical issues and a matter of wrongful consumer behaviour.
