Post-Growth Society: A Theoretical Perspective on the Implications for Employment

This theoretical study is an attempt to shed some light on the impact of a post-growth paradigm on the organization of employment in our current European societies. Using insights from Ecological Economics, it combines a macroeconomic and a sociological perspective to, first, apprehend how employment has been perceived and organised since the end of the Second World War in Europe, in our growth-based economy. Second, it analyses three highly discussed perspectives of a post-growth society, the degrowth movement, the steady-state and a-growth. After reviewing what these perspectives argue, this study outlines how employment would be organised and sustained in each of them, through a critical discussion of the policy proposals they put forward. This review of the literature suggests that, by aiming at a high level of individual welfare while respecting the ecological limits of the environment, the post-growth society could offer more freedom to the individual by reframing the place of work within a society as well as in one’s life. In particular, it seems to be directed towards allowing the individual to reclaim its work, in terms of work as a process, work as a meaningful occupation and work as only one component of life among others.