Join Professor Milena Büchs as she explores the relationship between economic growth and the welfare state.

Important information

Please note that this event is hybrid - so you can choose between attending in person or online. You can select this when you're filling out the registration form.

If you opt to attend online, please note that the actual talk starts at 5:30pm as shown in the agenda below. The indicated 5pm start is for the drinks reception for in person attendees.

About the event

Critiques of economic growth are receiving increased scientific and public attention. The post-growth literature discusses how wellbeing for all can be achieved within planetary boundaries. However, current welfare states are often seen as growth dependent. The drivers of welfare state growth dependencies and related policy responses remain poorly understood.

In this talk, Milena will give an overview of drivers and policy responses based on research which used a semi-systematic literature review and was funded by the Horizon Europe funded MAPS project (https://mapsresearch.eu/). The analysis identifies key drivers that the literature discusses such as the growth dependence of employment and related welfare funds, rent extraction and for-profit provisioning, increasing inequality, ageing societies, political power of vested interests, and environmental impacts.

Related policy responses proposed in the literature include maintaining employment without growth, using less growth dependent revenues, limiting rent-seeking and political power of vested interests, pre- and redistribution, preventative health approaches and climate change mitigation.

The talk will also briefly summarise how the literature discusses the question whether welfare state growth independence can be achieved within a capitalist system.

About the speaker

Milena Büchs (https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1183/professor-milena-buchs) is Professor of Sustainable Welfare at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK. Milena's research focuses on sustainable welfare, eco-social policy, just transitions and climate justice. She has published widely on the relationship between economic growth and welfare states and the question of how welfare states can be transformed so that everyone's needs can be met within planetary limits.

Milena is currently a Co-Investigator in two Horizon Europe projects, MAPS - Models, Assessments and Policy for Sustainability, and ToBe - Towards a Sustainable Wellbeing Economy. In MAPS, she is leading a work package on sustainable welfare. Prior to joining the University of Leeds in 2016, she was a Lecturer and Associate Professor in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton (2005-2016), and completed a PhD in Social Policy at the Humboldt University Berlin.

More information

The event will include a drinks reception, audience Q&A, and an opportunity for informal networking and discussion following the talk.

The session is part of the 'Rethinking Prosperity on a Finite Planet (https://sheffield.ac.uk/grantham-centre/engagement/rethinking-prosperity-finite-planet)' event series.

Agenda

05:00 PM - 05:30 PM

Drinks reception

05:30 PM - 06:00 PM

'Why welfare states depend on economic growth - and how that could change'

Professor Milena Büchs

06:00 PM - 06:30 PM

Q&A

06:30 PM - 07:00 PM

Informal discussion and networking

Description supplied by the event organiser.