de force, sinuous, disruptive – and a masterpiece of measured rage and love.’
Jonathon Porritt – Author of Hope in Hell
‘Post Growth is an extraordinary, powerful and beautifully written book – difficult to put down. Jackson names the beast in our midst that the coronavirus crisis has unmasked and makes a huge and timely contribution to humanity. A masterpiece!’
Mamphela Ramphele – Co-President, The Club of Rome
‘Economic wisdom wrapped up in poetry – only Tim Jackson knows how to do that. A beautiful read.’
Kate Raworth – Author of Doughnut Economics
‘Being relatively agnostic about economic growth I took on Tim Jackson’s Post Growth with a critical eye, but his razor-sharp analysis and powerful storytelling has convinced me more than ever that the myth of never ending conventional growth is crumbling. If you want to measure true value in life and our economies, this is your guidebook.’
Johan Rockström – Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
‘In trademark fashion, Tim Jackson offers up psychology, philosophy and economics through the lives of a series of extraordinary individuals who can guide us through the collapse of capitalism and the struggle to create something better. An expansive, wise and uplifting work that will reorient the conversation. Highly recommended.’
Juliet Schor – Author of After the Gig
‘Jackson is the great storyteller of economics – of what economies can and should be. In this book he draws on the stories of original thinkers near and far to show that post growth – a future beyond capitalism – is not just necessary for our planet, but also to sustain our human spirit.’
Julia Steinberger – University of Lausanne
‘This is an important and urgent book. Tim Jackson exposes the cult of growth which is leading us down a path of human misery and destruction of the natural world. A book of questions, interwoven with stories and philosophy: our collective challenge is to create the answers.’
Jo Swinson – Director, Partners for a New Economy
‘Tim Jackson offers us a book that is both honest and hopeful. It gently lets its stark messages unfold through writing that is often more like poetry than political prose. As rich in imagery as it is grounded with examples and clear explanations of why our economy is in urgent need of recalibration, this is a book that future generations will be glad was written.’
Katherine Trebeck – Author of The Economics of Arrival
‘It is harder and harder to deny that we in the “developed” world are collectively prisoners of an addictive delusion – the myth of constantly increasing economic growth. In this brief but weighty book, Tim Jackson exposes this myth with unambiguous clarity, and asks whether we are able to seize the opportunities for tough self-questioning prompted by the current global crisis.’
Rowan Williams – 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
‘At a time when the oligarchy is striving to greenwash its ecocidal ways, Jackson’s empowering and elegiac new book takes the real fight to them, elegantly but forcefully: to flourish on a living planet, humanity must plan for life after capitalism. Not only a must-read but also a highly enjoyable one!’
Yanis Varoufakis – Author of Another Now
Post Growth
Life after Capitalism
Tim Jackson
polity
Copyright © Tim Jackson 2021
The right of Tim Jackson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2021 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4253-6
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‘On the Pulse of Morning’ from ON THE PULSE OF MORNING by Maya Angelou, copyright © 1993 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
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Dedication
For Linda
Prologue
‘History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again.’
Maya Angelou, 19931
‘What’s past is prologue; what to come, In yours and my discharge’
William Shakespeare, 16102
‘The world starts to shake,’ wrote the sociologist Peter Berger, ‘in the very instant that its sustaining conversation begins to falter.’ The year 2020 bore undeniable witness to this inconvenient truth. Our sustaining conversation didn’t just falter. It did an abrupt about-turn and slapped us in the face. Hard. No surprise then that, even today, the world feels more than a little shaky.3
It had all been going so well. The sun rose resplendent over the highest town in Europe in the third week of January. Its early
