Why do we have such a hard time imagining substantive economic change? I have a new open access paper that explores this question, looking at the ways academic sustainability writing shuts down our economic imaginations - and how it might expand them. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… 1/n My first encounters with "the economy" were as a barrier to change: 'we can't take radical climate action because it will damage the economy'. The Economy was the measuring stick by which pro social or environmental measures were judged. 2/n

A very brief thread, taking this more seriously than it deserves.

1. "degrowthers want governments to ... reduce living standards outright, in order to preserve the planet."

This is a strawman. Degrowthers argue that GDP growth is not the best way to improve living standards

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1458089495090241536

2. "The typical degrowther argument is that in the past, GDP and resources use have always been tightly correlated. But this is just drawing a line through some data — it’s not based on any deep theory."

This is untrue. The degrowth argument *starts* from a theoretical position.

I have new open access paper in @TheLancetPlanet. It's a theoretical framework that aims to shed light on some reasons that neoliberal capitalism is struggling with COVID, despite having such unprecedented potential to deal with it. A thread. thelancet.com/journals/lanpl… 1/15 I start with the idea that the economy is any system that we use to transform and distribute the earth's resources. There are lots of possible ways to organise an economy. This analysis is a key starting point of ecological and feminist economics. 2/15

A thread of my reactions to @Leigh_Phillips attack on degrowth in his @_ourEconomy article. #degrowth #postgrowth #ecologicaleconomics #Socialism It is an example of the way pro-growth socialist environmentalism often dresses up social democratic & capitalist ideas in radical rhetoric. Most of the logic undermines socialism as much as degrowth.