Abstract
Recent years have seen a growth in academic literature proposing a variety of ecosocial policies that seek to simultaneously advance environmental and social goals. However, the many proposals largely remain fragmented and scattered, making it difficult to see the ecosocial project as a broader coherent political agenda. This paper seeks to address this issue, through a systematic literature review, focusing on ecosocial proposals that directly or indirectly facilitate a downscaling of production and consumption in high-income countries. The review revealed 126 different policy proposals across 73 academic texts. These were categorized into five broad themes: democracy & participation, income & employment, redistributive taxation, consumption regulation, and social services. The categories illustrate the ecosocial project as consisting of unifying goals associated with these five themes. While the existing literature illustrates that the ecosocial project has much to offer in terms of addressing the socio-ecological and democratic crises in high-income countries, considerable gaps remain. Specifically, more research is arguably needed on (1) political strategy (2) detailing of individual policy proposals and (3) policy mixes.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 142804 |
| Tidsskrift | Journal of Cleaner Production |
| Vol/bind | 467 |
| Antal sider | 13 |
| ISSN | 0959-6526 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:A cross-cutting theme emerges regarding the role of in-kind services and cash payments, respectively. Several arguments have been made on why there exists a degree of conflict between services and cash transfers, especially regarding Universal Basic Services (UBS) and Universal Basic Income (UBI). Most fundamentally, the concept of decommodification is central (see: Dukelow and Murphy 2022; Koch, 2020a; Gough (2017), Mastini et al., 2021). Reducing individuals\u2019 reliance on markets for participation in society can pave the way to a post-productivist society, the argument goes. Thus, a large role of monetary payments is conflicting with the goals of an ecosocial transition. The focus on UBS within ecosocial literature thus partly results from a concern that UBI fails to address decommodification (Gough, 2021). Moreover, several critics of payments in the form of UBI are also concerned that such a scheme cannot coexist with a well-developed UBS, as it will divert too much funding and resources (Coote, 2022; Gough, 2017).
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