Degrowth dynamics modeling policy pathways using a systems perspective

• Autor(a) principal: Dula, Ivan
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/17873
• topic: Degrowth; System dynamics; Policy; Modeling; Simulation; Basic and maximum income; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia do Ambiente

Degrowth is most commonly defined as a socially sustainable and equitable reduction (and eventually stabilization) of society’s throughput, where throughput refers to the materials and energy society extracts, processes, transports, and distributes, to consume and return back to the environment as waste. The origins of degrowth paradigm are traced back to the 1970’s and the Romanian economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and his work on entropy in economy. Over the last 50 years supporters of degrowth from academia and practice developed a large theoretical network of concepts and policy proposals designed to offer alternatives to modern economic system. This thesis builds on that work and explores degrowth policy proposals from a system dynamics perspective. To better understand the underlying causal structure it was necessary to go beyond information available in the literature. Experts in the field of degrowth were contacted by the means of an online questionnaire and the information collected was analyzed and used to develop a simulation model which is capable of testing validity of their claims. The results show that all four polices tested have the potential to positively impact socio-economic and environmental conditions and that the experts have a good understanding of possible dynamic consequences of implementing these policies. They also revealed some surprising unintended consequences and possibility of long term problems.