IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/empiri/v49y2022i2d10.1007_s10663-021-09526-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From “Decent work and economic growth” to “Sustainable work and economic degrowth”: a new framework for SDG 8

Author

Listed:
  • Halliki Kreinin

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business
    Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Ernest Aigner

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business
    Vienna University of Economics and Business
    Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

The sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) have successfully raised awareness and built momentum for taking collective action, while also remaining uncritical of the central causes of the environmental crises – economic growth, inequality, and overconsumption in the Global North. We analyse SDG 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth” from the perspective of strong sustainability – as phenomena, institutions and ideologies – and find that it does not fit the criteria of strong sustainability. Based on this observation, we propose a novel framework for SDG8 in line with strong sustainability and the latest scientific research, “Sustainable Work and Economic Degrowth”, including a first proposal for new sub-goals, targets and indicators. This encompasses an integrated systems approach to achieving the SDGs’ overalls goals – a sustainable future for present and future generations. The key novel contributions of the paper include new indicators to measure societies’ dependence on economic growth, to ensure the provisioning of welfare independent of economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Halliki Kreinin & Ernest Aigner, 2022. "From “Decent work and economic growth” to “Sustainable work and economic degrowth”: a new framework for SDG 8," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 281-311, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:empiri:v:49:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s10663-021-09526-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10663-021-09526-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10663-021-09526-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10663-021-09526-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert U. Ayres & Benjamin Warr, 2009. "The Economic Growth Engine," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13324.
    2. Marilyn Power, 2004. "Social Provisioning As A Starting Point For Feminist Economics," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 3-19.
    3. Jorge Gómez-Paredes & Eiji Yamasue & Hideyuki Okumura & Keiichi N. Ishihara, 2015. "The Labour Footprint: A Framework To Assess Labour In A Complex Economy," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 415-439, December.
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4vsqk7docb9nmophtp29pk68cr is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Charles I. Jones & Peter J. Klenow, 2016. "Beyond GDP? Welfare across Countries and Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2426-2457, September.
    6. Oh, Seung-Yun & Park, Yongjin & Bowles, Samuel, 2012. "Veblen effects, political representation, and the reduction in working time over the 20th century," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 218-242.
    7. Marc Lavoie, 2014. "Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations," Post-Print hal-01343652, HAL.
    8. Sebastian Gechert & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Dominika Kolcunova, 2022. "Measuring Capital-Labor Substitution: The Importance of Method Choices and Publication Bias," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 55-82, July.
    9. Thomas Wiedmann & Manfred Lenzen & Lorenz T. Keyßer & Julia K. Steinberger, 2020. "Scientists’ warning on affluence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Ben Fine, 2013. "Financialization from a Marxist Perspective," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 47-66.
    11. Gerold, Stefanie & Nocker, Matthias, 2018. "More Leisure or Higher Pay? A Mixed-methods Study on Reducing Working Time in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 27-36.
    12. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Mark Elder & Simon Høiberg Olsen, 2019. "The Design of Environmental Priorities in the SDGs," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 70-82, January.
    14. Biesecker, Adelheid & Hofmeister, Sabine, 2010. "Focus: (Re)productivity: Sustainable relations both between society and nature and between the genders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1703-1711, June.
    15. Christoph Görg & Ulrich Brand & Helmut Haberl & Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Stefan Liehr, 2017. "Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, June.
    16. Armon Rezai & Sigrid Stagl, 2016. "Ecological Macreconomics: Introduction and Review," Ecological Economics Papers ieep9, Institute of Ecological Economics.
    17. Jahoda,Marie, 1982. "Employment and Unemployment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521285865, October.
    18. Cahen-Fourot, Louison, 2020. "Contemporary capitalisms and their social relation to the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    19. Rainer Kotschy & Uwe Sunde, 2021. "Income Shocks, Inequality, and Democracy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 295-326, January.
    20. Andrea Stocker & Anett Großmann & Friedrich Hinterberger & Marc Wolter, 2014. "A low growth path in Austria: potential causes, consequences and policy options," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 445-465, August.
    21. Dorninger, Christian & Hornborg, Alf & Abson, David J. & von Wehrden, Henrik & Schaffartzik, Anke & Giljum, Stefan & Engler, John-Oliver & Feller, Robert L. & Hubacek, Klaus & Wieland, Hanspeter, 2021. "Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    22. John Barry, 2020. "A Genealogy of Economic Growth as Ideology and Cold War Core State Imperative," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 18-29, January.
    23. Kyle W. Knight & Juliet B. Schor, 2014. "Economic Growth and Climate Change: A Cross-National Analysis of Territorial and Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions in High-Income Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-10, June.
    24. Sebastian Gechert & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Dominika Kolcunova, 2022. "Measuring Capital-Labor Substitution: The Importance of Method Choices and Publication Bias," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 55-82, July.
    25. Spash, Clive L., 2012. "New foundations for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 36-47.
    26. Christoph Scherrer, 2018. "Labour surplus is here to stay: why ‘decent work for all’ will remain elusive," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 20(2), pages 293-307, October.
    27. Kamerāde, Daiga & Wang, Senhu & Burchell, Brendan & Balderson, Sarah Ursula & Coutts, Adam, 2019. "A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    28. Kallis, Giorgos, 2011. "In defence of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 873-880, March.
    29. Daniel W. O’Neill & Andrew L. Fanning & William F. Lamb & Julia K. Steinberger, 2018. "A good life for all within planetary boundaries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(2), pages 88-95, February.
    30. Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2017. "A Framework for Decoupling Human Need Satisfaction From Energy Use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 43-52.
    31. Rai, Shirin M. & Brown, Benjamin D. & Ruwanpura, Kanchana N., 2019. "SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth – A gendered analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 368-380.
    32. Antal, Miklós, 2014. "Green goals and full employment: Are they compatible?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 276-286.
    33. Lukas Hardt & John Barrett & Peter G. Taylor & Timothy J. Foxon, 2020. "Structural Change for a Post-Growth Economy: Investigating the Relationship between Embodied Energy Intensity and Labour Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, January.
    34. Barth, Thomas & Jochum, Georg & Littig, Beate, 2019. "Transformation of what? Or: The socio-ecological transformation of working society," IHS Working Paper Series 1, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beata Bieszk-Stolorz & Krzysztof Dmytrów, 2023. "Decent Work and Economic Growth in EU Countries—Static and Dynamic Analyses of Sustainable Development Goal 8," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Yeboah, Samuel, 2023. "Balancing Growth and Green: Strategies for Sustainable Development in Developing Economies," MPRA Paper 118180, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Jun 2023.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castro, Damaris & Bleys, Brent, 2023. "Do people think they have enough? A subjective income sufficiency assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    2. Koskimäki, Teemu, 2023. "Targeting socioeconomic transformations to achieve global sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    3. Gerold, Stefanie & Hoffmann, Maja & Aigner, Ernest, 2023. "Towards a critical understanding of work in ecological economics: A postwork perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    4. Stratford, Beth, 2020. "The Threat of Rent Extraction in a Resource-constrained Future," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Cieplinski, André & D'Alessandro, Simone & Guarnieri, Pietro, 2021. "Environmental impacts of productivity-led working time reduction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    7. Tallgauer, Maximilian & Schank, Christoph, 2024. "Challenging the growth-prosperity Nexus: Redefining undergraduate economics education for the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    8. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2020. "Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    9. Rezai, Armon & Taylor, Lance & Foley, Duncan, 2018. "Economic Growth, Income Distribution, and Climate Change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 164-172.
    10. Naqvi, Asjad & Stockhammer, Engelbert, 2018. "Directed Technological Change in a Post-Keynesian Ecological Macromodel," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 168-188.
    11. Plank, Christina & Liehr, Stefan & Hummel, Diana & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Haberl, Helmut & Görg, Christoph, 2021. "Doing more with less: Provisioning systems and the transformation of the stock-flow-service nexus," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    12. Foramitti, Joël, 2023. "A framework for agent-based models of human needs and ecological limits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    13. Lukács, Bence & Antal, Miklós, 2023. "The practical feasibility of working time reduction: Do we have sufficient data?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    14. Kristian Kongshøj, 2023. "Social policy in a future of degrowth? Challenges for decommodification, commoning and public support," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Sarah-Louise Ruder & Sophia Rose Sanniti, 2019. "Transcending the Learned Ignorance of Predatory Ontologies: A Research Agenda for an Ecofeminist-Informed Ecological Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-29, March.
    16. Jackson, Tim, 2019. "The Post-growth Challenge: Secular Stagnation, Inequality and the Limits to Growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 236-246.
    17. Isham, Amy & Mair, Simon & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Worker wellbeing and productivity in advanced economies: Re-examining the link," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    18. Zwickl, Klara & Disslbacher, Franziska & Stagl, Sigrid, 2016. "Work-sharing for a sustainable economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 246-253.
    19. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2019. "Growth imperatives: Substantiating a contested concept," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 126-137.
    20. Hafner, Sarah & Anger-Kraavi, Annela & Monasterolo, Irene & Jones, Aled, 2020. "Emergence of New Economics Energy Transition Models: A Review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic growth; Decent work; Degrowth; Sustainable work; SDG 8;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:empiri:v:49:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s10663-021-09526-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.