Browsing by Author "Saarinen, Taru"

Post-growth economic thinking has received attention in recent years as an ecologically oriented alternative to current economic theory and policy practices. Specifically, post-growth thinking seeks alternatives to the growth paradigm, and the use of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of ‘progress’ in wealthy countries. To tackle the issues with the GDP, a host of ‘Beyond GDP’ indicators have been proposed by academics and international institutions, aiming to measure ‘progress’ along wellbeing and ecological sustainability. This thesis discusses post-growth economic thinking and Beyond GDP indicators from the perspective of feminist political economy. The thesis builds a theoretical argument for a potential research area of feminist post-growth contributions to the Beyond GDP discussion. This argument also provides an answer to the following questions: When it comes to measuring progress, to what extent are post-growth and critical feminist ideas compatible? Further, what can such a perspective offer for the study of Beyond GDP indicators? Economic indicators, in this thesis, are understood as tools for prioritisation of economic policy. As such, indicators are seen to carry considerable power. The analysis highlights that there is a gap in literature on critical and philosophical political economic analyses of Beyond GDP indicators. With a theoretical analysis and a brief exploration of two alternative indicators, this thesis proposes concrete themes that a post-growth perspective integrating feminist considerations can highlight and further study in measurements of ‘progress’. These include understandings of the normative considerations behind indicators, the relationship between ‘the economy’ and other spheres such as ecological limits, as well as methodological considerations of how to complement quantitative data. In conclusion, this thesis argues that various considerations, such as the role attributed to ‘non-economical’ and structural factors, should be considered in measuring wellbeing and sustainability in a post-growth economy.