ABSTRACT
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has proclaimed that "or a good portion of the 20th century there was an implicit assumption that economic growth was synonymous with progress: an assumption that a growing gross domestic product (GDP) meant life must be getting better". It argues that the exceptional position of economic growth as a core policy goal is based on the hegemony of the "economic growth paradigm" and cannot be adequately understood without taking into account the complex structure and long-term historical evolution of this paradigm and its underlying power relations. The chapter discusses the four discourses that collectively legitimated, universalized, and naturalized the growth paradigm and its underlying social and power relations: GDP as a measure; growth as panacea; growth as the universal yardstick; and growth without limits. There are good reasons to question the desirability or possibility of further quantitative growth in industrialized countries.
