In the first year of the project, researchers in the Postgrowth Business (PGB) project are not only reviewing literature related to postgrowth and business, but also meeting with important postgrowth researchers to understand their research findings so far and insights into the principles of postgrowth and the role of business. In February, we met with Professor Julia Steinberger.
Julia is a leading researcher in ecological economics and post‑growth studies, based at the University of Lausanne. She serves as one of the three Principal Investigators of REAL – A Post‑Growth Deal, an European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Project (2023–2029) designed to advance scientific understanding of how societies can ensure human well‑being within planetary limits without relying on economic growth. Her work spans resource modelling, provisioning systems, energy use, inequality, and climate justice. At REAL, Steinberger leads the work on Post‑growth Provisioning Systems, investigating how essential needs, like housing, mobility, food, energy, can be met sustainably and fairly through democratic and non‑extractive arrangements.
However, the origins of the REAL project for Julia began much earlier. Some of the foundational work came from her earlier project at Leeds in the UK, “Living Well Within Limits”, which quantified the biophysical resource requirements for achieving human well‑being. Research in that project quantified the energy requirements for decent living standards, finding that there is available technology that can be combined with sufficiency measures to meet the needs for a decent life for a global population with far less energy than present (Millward-Hopkins et al., 2020). Another key insight from this earlier research project was that the socio-economic context, particularly the provision of public services as opposed to economic growth, is important for realising decent living standards with low energy requirements (Vogel et al., 2021).
Following up on this earlier work, the REAL research team expands to cover integrated analyses of possibilities (biophysical limits), provisioning systems, policies, politics and practices necessary for a just post-growth transition. Julia noted that the ultimate aim of a postgrowth transition is restructuring and repurposing the economy to enable well-being for all within planetary boundaries. Already one key take-away from her research with others in the project so far is that targeting human needs satisfaction directly (rather than economic growth to satisfy needs indirectly) can enable decoupling of income and wellbeing (Tamberg et al., 2025 – preprint).
As the PGB project progresses we will also be following the findings of the REAL project with interest!
Learn more about the REAL project: Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal
