Product Description

Is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion? In this explosive book, Tim Jackson - a top sustainability adviser to the UK government - makes a compelling case against continued economic growth in developed nations. No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations. But in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it. More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption. Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of economic activity - and there is no evidence to suggest that we can - we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth. Economic heresy? Or an opportunity to improve the sources of well-being, creativity and lasting prosperity that lie outside the realm of the market? Tim Jackson provides a credible vision of how human society can flourish - within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Fulfilling this vision is simply the most urgent task of our times. The book is a substantially revised and updated version of Jackson's controversial study for the Sustainable Development Commission, an advisory body to the UK Government.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5433 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
'One of the best books of the year' --The Financial Times

'Tim Jackson's book simply resets the agenda for Western society.' --Bernie Bulkin, former Chief Scientist of BP

'Provokes official thought on the unthinkable. No small accomplishment! I hope this gets the serious attention it deserves.' --Professor Herman Daly, author of Steady-State Economics and recipient of the Honorary Right Livelihood Award (Sweden's alternative to the Nobel Prize)

About the Author
Professor Tim Jackson is the Sustainable Development Commission's Economics Commissioner. He is also Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the newly-awarded ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE). To contact Professor Tim Jackson for press or events relating to his book, Prosperity Without Growth, please contact: gudrun.freese@earthscan.co.uk Tel +44 (0)20 7841 1930

Customer Reviews

The new frugality
As manifestos go, Prosperity Without Growth ranks as one of the more
well-mannered. Its critique of the path we are taking is devastating.
We have, Jackson persuasively argues, embarked on a consumerist road
which is utterly unsustainable - and ultimately unsatisfying. We are locked in because economic stability has become predicated on continuous growth - the survival of the entire system is thrown into jeopardy if economic growth slows. Governments, even somewhat enlightened governments, find themselves putting materialistic consumption above all else.

There are few villains. No greedy bankers, no grasping multinationals. Rather, as Jackson tells it, we are all victims of a collective self-delusion. Consumer goods become part of `a social conversation' with our families, friends and others because we invest them with meaning, with emotion. Consequently weaning ourselves off retail therapy isn't half as straightforward as you might think.

Prosperity without Growth catches the popular mood of disenchantment in much the same way as Oliver James's Affluenza. Jackson's diagnosis is a good deal more sharply defined than his prescriptions for change: he demands (politely, of course) the "pursuit of an individual frugality". Still here is a well-argued, well-written book which is plainly intent on winning over the sceptical mainstream.