Forum: Europe’s Path Towards the Socio-Ecological Transition

This Intereconomics article is available for free at this page after an embargo period of two years. Reading it before then is possible via SpringerLink.Beset by an unprecedented combination of challenges including globalisation, demographic shifts, high unemployment and climate change, Europe is in dire need of a new kind of growth and development strategy. The authors of this Forum make compelling arguments for a socio-ecological transition, in which traditional measures of progress like GDP growth are downplayed in favour of factors such as social inclusion, environmental welfare, high levels of employment and the well-being of European citizens.

This Forum explores some of the issues that must be resolved in order to fully achieve the socio-ecological transition, including the necessary decoupling of non-renewable energy use from GDP growth, the reduction of income and wealth inequalities, and the encouragement of innovation that is not based on fossil fuel technology.

The Forum presents an optimistic path forward for the continent, with practical policy solutions that do not ignore the many obstacles facing a successful transition.

The Forum comprises a set of individual articles:

+ A New Strategy for Europe by Karl Aiginger, Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and Margit Schratzenstaller, Austrian Institute of Economic Research

+ Social Investment as a Perspective on Welfare State Transformation in Europe by Thomas Leoni, Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)

+ More Productive, Less Sustainable? On the Need to Consider Material Resource Flows by Anke Schaffartzik, Alpen-Adria University, Dominik Wiedenhofer, Alpen-Adria University and Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Alpen-Adria University

+ Empowering the Green Innovation Machine by Reinhilde Veugelers, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

+ The Climate Change Impact of Material Use by Arno Behrens, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Intereconomics: Archive http://archive.intereconomics.eu/years/

SpringerLink: Intereconomics http://link.springer.com/journal/10272

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