Prosperity Beyond Growth: An Emerging Agenda for European Cities

Abstract

In recent years, post-growth ideas and policies have been catching the attention of policymakers, activists, and academics across the globe. Our research finds that European cities in particular are at the leading edge of the recent surge in interest. From Amsterdam to Glasgow, Barcelona to Vienna, European city governments and urban residents are seeking ways to realign their priorities away from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and towards the pursuit of social and ecological well-being. Despite this trend, most of the existing thought on post-growth has focused on the national or global levels; much less attention has been paid to what a distinctly urban post-growth political agenda might look like. This article begins to fill that gap, focusing on the European case and the cities currently at the forefront of post-growth experimentation. We explore the emergence of post-growth thinking both globally and at the city level by analyzing related terms (such as circular economy or degrowth) in academic and policy publications, and in Google search trends. While post-growth-related terms have only recently begun to be linked to cities, our analysis shows that interest in urban post-growth is rising steeply, especially in Europe where even the most growth-critical terms are beginning to permeate mainstream political debates. To conclude, we step back to consider the relevance of post-growth ideas to European cities and to ask what an urban post-growth agenda might look like.