This Labour government is putting growth above all else, John, but will bigger profits and higher GDP bring anything good to the average Brit? Is growth even a helpful policy objective for improving our wellbeing?

But first - hello! My name is Joe. I’m one of the Senior Researchers at Positive Money and last week I headed to Oslo to share some of my latest work on shifting our economy’s focus from growth to wellbeing.

It’s an area of personal interest, but also a topic that Positive Money has explored before - maybe you were one of the thousands who joined our Tragedy of Growth paper launch webinar back in 2020?

Building on this work, we were delighted to get the chance last week to present at the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)-Degrowth Conference 2025 in Norway - the primary international conference in its field. [1]

Happening every two years, it brings together policymakers, activists, academics, and NGOs all interested in building socially just postgrowth futures.

After many hours spent on trains, I arrived in Oslo alongside colleagues from Colombia, India, and pretty much everywhere in between. Around 1,200 of us hashed out the problems of chasing growth, in a university building in the centre of the city over 3 long and busy days, with talks and discussions on the intersections of degrowth with education, law, food systems, finance, care, technology and more. 

My presentation, building on my recent blog series, critiqued growth as an objective of government policy and supposed measure of social prosperity, focusing on its many harms and its infeasibility in the current context. I highlighted the damaging financialised growth model being pushed by this Labour government, and discussed some of the tensions this has emphasized in the new economy movement. For example, should we advocate for progressive reforms while still using the language of ‘growth’? While some organisations talk about ‘green growth’, even if they have critiques of it internally, at Positive Money we think this further entrenches growth as an uncontested policy goal.

A standout moment of mine was Lebohang Liepollo Pheko’s rousing speech on work and time justice, asking all of us to think through “who gets to live a life with dignity, with rhythm and with rest?”, even in a world with a 4-day work week. [2] She’s an ambassador for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (of which we’re a member), and does excellent research on the crossovers between feminist and decolonial economics. [3]

The final plenary session featured the economist Kate Raworth, author of the book ‘Doughnut Economics’, that argues for living within planetary boundaries while ensuring everyone can flourish. [4] Alongside academics Max Ajl and Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, who work on climate politics and degrowth strategy respectively, the session looked at how we move from theory to action. [5] While Kate’s Doughnut model has gained international popularity, Max highlighted its blind spots around neocolonialism, militarisation, and exploitation of the South by the North, while Ekaterina pointed to its lack of engagement with political systems.

These kinds of tensions were explored across the conference programme, with critiques emerging of the focus on domestic reforms in the Global North while insufficient attention was given to dismantling global systems of neocolonial exploitation of the Global South. This includes the role played by the International Monetary and Financial System (IMFS) - which we addressed in our Beyond Dollar Dominance report.

Overall, attending the conference was a fantastic opportunity to create connections with the increasing number of people working on the intersections of degrowth, ecological economics, and monetary and financial systems. It provided an excellent platform for Positive Money to feed into this dynamic movement for change, and build awareness of our research. I’m excited to keep building on this work over the coming months and years with your support, so together we can redesign our economic system for social justice and a liveable planet.

Best wishes,

Joe

Senior Researcher, Positive Money

P.S. We’re always looking for the best ways to let you know about our work, so did you like this style of update? Let us know by replying to this email!

Notes:

[1] ISEE-Degrowth 2025: About the conference

[2] Bluesky: Wellbeing Economy Alliance Lebohang Liepollo Pheko speech

[3] Wellbeing Economy Alliance: Members
    Club of Rome: Pheko, Lebohang Liepollo

[4] Doughnut Economics Action Lab: About Doughnut Economics

[5] Pluto Press: Author Max Ajl

     Lund University: Ekaterina Chertkovskaya

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