Economics of Post-Growth Planning: Cooperation and Altruism
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Post-growth Planning is an intellectual agenda explicitly developed in antithesis to the paradigm of economic growth. Cooperation and Altruism are themes of economic research in antithesis to the paradigm of market-based economic relations and selfishness. Can fruitful dialogues happen between the two fields? Can the more established latter inform the fast-growing former? Can formal and rigorous economics assist post-growth planning scholars? This article addresses those questions. Issues around environmental sustainability, urban commons and common good are intrinsically related to cooperation and altruism at the micro and at the macro level: i.e. individually, altruistic behaviour is different from the one of the selfish homo economicus, and in the aggregate, altruism can translate into a social norm of cooperation for the common good. By exploring these links, I discuss how theoretical findings on altruism and cooperation can be used to frame post-growth planning agendas.
Source: Built Environment
DOI: 10.2148/benv.51.1.35
Author: Tommaso Gabrieli
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4407831067