From Limits to Growth to Post-growth

The International Politics of Technology in Historical Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID19450010
AuthorsAdrian Smith (0000-0001-8027-712X, Adrian Smith (Corresponding author), Science Policy Research Unit, Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, Brighton, England BN1 9SL, UK., corresponding author), Adrian Ely (0000-0002-3242-839X, Adrian Ely, Science Policy Research Unit, Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, Brighton, England, UK., corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue2
Pages230-258
Publication date2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0971-7218 • E-ISSN: 0973-0796
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09717218251326833
OpenAlexW4409002902
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited61

Fifty years ago, innovation studies researchers were critical towards the pioneering ‘Limits to Growth’ analysis of world economy–environment relations. Whilst criticism took distinct forms, their arguments shared hope in the ability of technology to decouple economic growth from environmental collapse. This idea has remained prominent in policy ever since. In revisiting that debate, however, this article recalls how critics’ hope was conditional upon a radical restructuring of political and economic relations at the international level. This was a period when Third World solidarity was pushing the United Nations towards an equitable economic order for post-colonial justice—including a global redistribution of technological capabilities and self-reliance. These hopes crumbled in the face of the neoliberal counter-revolution, and today, green growth frames technology as a device for evading, not enabling, radical political and economic change. Given the alarming fact that Limits to Growth scenarios appear more prescient than ever, what lessons can post-growth approaches to technology draw from this history

Environmental ethics · Political science · Politics · Computer Science · Economic and Technological Innovation · Economic Growth and Productivity · Law · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence