Good Books on Transitioning to a Sustainable Economy & Related topics

Clive L. Spash (2024) Foundations of Social Ecological Economics: The fight for revolutionary change in economic thought. Manchester: University Press.

This book explores radical dissent from orthodox mainstream economics, and sets out a theoretically grounded vision for the emerging paradigm of social ecological economics. Building on radical and philosophical foundations, it articulates a vision of social ecological economics, dismantling entrenched notions of growth and efficiency in favour of a framework centred on social provisioning and needs embedded in ethics.

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Mark Diesendorf & Rod Taylor (2023) The Path to Sustainable Civilisation, Palgrave Macmillan.

This book shows that we have unwittingly fallen into an existential crisis of our own making. We have allowed large corporations, the military and other vested interests to capture the state and influence public opinion excessively.  We have created a god called 'the market', which is controlled by vested interests, and allowed it to control our most important decisions. The way out of our black hole is to build social movements to pressure to government and big business to weaken the power of vested interests and strengthen democratic decision-making.

Peter A. Victor (2021) Herman Daly’s Economics for a Full World: His life and ideas. Routledge.

As the first biography of Professor Herman Daly, this book provides an in-depth account of one of the leading thinkers and most widely read writers on economics, environment and sustainability. Based on Daly's steady-state economics, this book has been widely acknowledged through numerous prestigious international awards and prizes. Drawing on extensive interviews with Daly and in-depth analysis of his publications and debates, Peter Victor presents a unique insight into Daly’s life from childhood to the present day, describing his intellectual development, inspirations and influence. Much of the book is devoted to a comprehensive account of Daly’s foundational contributions to ecological economics. It describes how his insights and proposals have been received by economists and non-economists and the extraordinary relevance of Daly’s full world economics to solving the economic problems of today and tomorrow.

Jason Hickel (2021) Less is More: How degrowth will save the world. Windmill Books (imprint of Penguin).

Hickel argues that capitalism demands perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.

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Brian Czech (2021) Supply Shock. Steady State Press,

debunks the widely accepted myths held by politicians, economists, and Wall Street that limitless economic expansion is the Holy Grail, and that there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment.

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Steve Keen (2021) Debunking Economics: the naked emperor dethroned? Digital edition, revised. Zed Books.

Debunking Economics exposes what many non-economists may have suspected and a minority of economists have long known: that economic theory is not only unpalatable, but also plain wrong. When the original Debunking was published back in 2001, the market economy seemed invincible, and conventional 'neoclassical' economic theory basked in the limelight. Steve Keen argued that economists deserved none of the credit for the economy's performance, and that 'the false confidence it has engendered in the stability of the market economy has encouraged policy-makers to dismantle some of the institutions which initially evolved to try to keep its instability within limits'. That instability exploded with the devastating financial crisis of 2007, and now haunts the global economy with the prospect of another Depression.

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Steve Keen (2021) The New Economics: a manifesto. Polity.

In this book, Keen presents his Reformation: a new economics that tackles serious issues that today's economic priesthood ignores, such as money, energy and ecological sustainability.

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Stephanie Kelton (2020) The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the birth of the people’s economy. Public Affairs.

Stephanie Kelton explains how national governments, that have control over their own money supply, can increase spending for social justice and environmental protection, resulting in budget deficits, without necessarily driving inflation.

Haydn Washington (ed.) (2020) Ecological Economics: Solutions for the future. Self-published.

This book arose from the ANZSEE (Australian New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics) conference ‘Ecological Economics: Solutions Now and in the Future’ held at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in November 2019 (https://anzsee.org.au/2019-anzsee-conference/).  Following the conference we agreed that the book arising from this would be self-published so that the pdf could be given away free, and the paperback would be as cheap as possible, so that students and the general public would obtain it readily and/or could purchase it easily.

The Introduction was developed by the Editor and ecological economist A/Prof Philip Lawn. Several chapters were reviewed by Dr Boyd Blackwell, President of ANZSEE. Hence, although this book was not published by a major publisher, it upholds academic rigour.  A Kindle copy is now available on Amazon. Download a low resolution copy.

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Haydn Washington (ed.) (2019) Positive Steps to a Steady State Economy.

CASSE NSW, 2019.

This book follows on from the booklet ‘Addicted to Growth’. In 35 chapters, by academic and community experts, this book details 170 steps we can take to turn our economy onto a sustainable path. It is illustrated by 58 cartoons by the brilliant cartoonist Polyp.

If you can’t wait to see the book you can download a low resolution copy.

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Haydn Washington & Paul Twomey, eds (2016) A Future Beyond Growth: Towards a steady state economy.  Earthscan from Routledge.

This book explores the reason why the endless growth economy is fundamentally unsustainable and considers ways in which society can move beyond this to a steady state economy. The book brings together some of the deepest thinkers from around the world to consider how to advance beyond growth. The main themes consider the deep problems of the current system and key aspects of a steady state economy, such as population; throughput and consumerism; ethics and equity; and policy for change. The policy section and conclusion bring together these various themes and indicates how we can move past the growth economy to a truly sustainable future.

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Tim Jackson (2016) Prosperity without Growth, 2nd edn, Taylor & Francis.

Jackson demonstrates that building a ‘postgrowth’ economy is a precise, definable and meaningful task. Starting from clear first principles, he sets out the dimensions of that task: the nature of enterprise; the quality of our working lives; the structure of investment; and the role of the money supply. He shows how the economy of tomorrow may be transformed in ways that protect employment, facilitate social investment, reduce inequality and deliver both ecological and financial stability.

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Herman Daly (2015) Economics for a full World.  https://www.greattransition.org/publication/economics-for-a-full-world

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Haydn Washington, ed. for CASSE NSW (n.d.) Addicted to Growth.  

This is an introduction to the steady state economy from an Australian perspective including what it would be like to live in a steady state economy and easy/immediate steps we can take to get there. PDF version  Download

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Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill (2013) Enough Is Enough: Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources. BK

presents a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth—an economy where the goal is enough, not more.

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Richard Heinberg (2011) The End of Growth, New Society Publishers,  

explains the financial crisis and describes what policymakers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth’s budget of energy and resources.

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Lester R. Brown (2011) World on the Edge: How to prevent environmental and economic collapse, Taylor & Francis.

In this urgent time, World on the Edge calls out the pivotal environmental issues and how to solve them now.

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