How to Change Course

Beyond growth, ecological planning offers a realist, transformative path toward a balanced human ecological footprint by deepening economic democracy

After decades of ecological policy failures and fantasies about the virtues of the market, planning is rising as an alternative path to face the environmental catastrophe and advance human emancipation.This book looks back at the history of this notion in the 20th century, between war economies, developmental catch-up, and socialist experiments, revisits the classic debates between the proponents of the “price signal” and those of “calculation in kind”, and shows how the current situation offers new possibilities for planning. The cautious deployment of digital tools, innovative accounting techniques, and the deepening of institutions of collective deliberation can give rise to a needs-based government of production. As long as they remain trapped in the straitjacket of the “free market”, consumer eco-gestures will prove powerless. Beyond growth, ecological planning offers a realist, transformative path toward a balanced human ecological footprint by deepening economic democracy.