Sustainability

Bridgen, Paul and Schoyen, Mi Ah (2022) Sustainability. In, Greve, Bent (ed.) De Gruyter Handbook of Contemporary Welfare States. De Gruyter, pp. 359-374. (doi:10.1515/9783110721768-021).

Abstract

Consideration of sustainability in the comparative welfare state literature over recent decades has mainly focused on economic and demographic parameters. This chapter draws on an emerging literature which suggests an ecological dimension, especially the global climate crisis, must be brought into these discussions. This literature includes efforts to conceptualise eco-social states, political economies that aspire to reconcile social and ecological considerations, and theoretical work on transitions to such arrangements. The chapter delineates three approaches to sustainability and their policy recommendations for a transition to future low-carbon welfare states - ecological moderni¬sation or green growth, the Green New Deal or egalitarian growth, and post-growth approaches. In the context of these three approaches, it reviews the literature on transitions to an eco-social state, focusing particularly on whether some types of welfare state are better placed than others to achieve this. The chapter finishes by briefly outlining the future research agenda. It suggests that most important in this respect are: (i) the need for theoretical innovations to develop new models of sustainable institutional arrangements; and (ii) the development of a better theoretical and empirical understanding of how countries or governments can manage eco-social state transitions.

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Contributors

Author: Paul Bridgen

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