Over 20 experts from 16 institutions attended the second roundtable of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Cities’ European Cities Programme on 2 November 2022. The event was chaired by Nuno F. da Cruz and featured a presentation by Ben Rogers on the evolution of post-growth thinking in Europe and its influence at the level of the city. The presentation is available here.
Professor Henrietta Moore (Institute for Global Prosperity) and Leonora Grcheva (Doughnut Economics Action Lab) were invited to respond to the presentation.
Professor Moore highlighted the need to pursue an agenda that puts contrasting inequalities, rather than pursuing growth, at its centre. “A large share of the population in the world’s richest countries live in a condition of poverty”, Professor Moore noted. “Thinking that cities can solve this problem can be a challenge. If we are to move to a post-growth world, we should understand what the role of cities would be.” She also stressed that challenges such as climate action and inequalities are fundamentally social and political ones, and as such cannot be addressed exclusively by technical and physical solutions.
Leonora Grcheva of Doughnut Economic Action Lab shared her experience working with cities and regions across Europe and beyond to ‘downscale’ the principles of doughnut economics. Grcheva noted that one of the potentials of this research is to start digging deeper into post-growth practices that already exist in cities and how local governments are evolving to enable and support these practices. “We should not only be asking the question of what a post-growth city looks like, but what does a post-growth local government look like,” she said.
Key takeaways from the discussion:
- Cities are not using the language of post-growth. Each of these cities that contributed to the roundtable is taking a distinct approach to ‘going beyond’ growth. However, they are not explicitly using the language of ‘post-growth’ to describe their approach, preferring less radical-sounding language of the doughnut, wellbeing, prosperity and the ‘economic transition’. This has helped them ensuring wider political and public support for their agendas.
- Cities are shaping their agendas based on concrete policy challenges. Cities are grappling with the recovery from the covid pandemic and the impact of the energy and cost-of-living crisis. In this context, responding to the challenges caused by the intersection of these crises resonate more than discourses on growth. A representative of the Barcelona City Council mentioned over-tourism, the cost-of-living crisis, energy poverty and the lack of affordable housing as the key challenges on which the city is framing their agendas. A representative from the London Borough of Camden highlighted their focus on combating inequalities and providing access to good quality jobs to residents.
- Reconciling social and ecological agendas. Following the example of Amsterdam, several European cities such as Brussels, Glasgow and Barcelona have engaged with the principles and methods of doughnut economics. According to DEAL’s Leonora Grcheva, the approach is proving to be us