Events

Upcoming Seminar: Miklós Antal (UAB Barcelona)

Where: RECENS,1014 Budapest, Országház u. 30

When: May 27th, 2014, 15:00

Abstract

Whether or not long-run economic growth can be sustainable has been debated for decades. Accumulated evidence supports two important conclusions. First, all major economies are dependent on growth: if GDP declines for a longer period, then significant social tensions can be expected due to rising unemployment, falling real wages and other problems. Second, further global economic growth is very likely to be accompanied by large-scale environmental degradation. Therefore, social and environmental sustainability are likely to be incompatible. To address this dilemma, strategies are needed to decouple – as much as possible – GDP reduction from social problems and GDP growth from environmental problems. In this exploratory talk, I will look at both correlations and the prospects of decoupling from a network perspective. This can be useful because both correlations are caused, at least in part, by network-related mechanisms. For instance, social relationships that force actors to adopt competitive strategies are an important reason for the correlation between GDP reduction and social tensions. Furthermore, the correlation between GDP and environmental impacts is persistent in several fields because policy effectiveness is limited by the increasing complexity of stakeholder networks. I will discuss network-related aspects of the growth debate and highlight the possible role of the quantification of network effects in devising sustainability strategies.

 

 

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