Rethinking growth: Towards the well-being economy

Abstract

This article considers the impact of growth on economic, social, environmental and cultural sustainability. Although it refutes an extractive model of growth, it suggests that a form of socially and ecologically positive and sustainable growth might have beneficial impacts in certain circumstances and locations. It argues that currently applied models of growth are both inefficient and unsustainable, as they are extractive of finite natural and human resources, and lead to inequalities that produce unaffordable costs. It therefore calls for a more intelligent, efficient, sustainable and place-based approach. Undertaking a general review of Wales, where recent well-being legislation places a sustainable development obligation on all devolved public bodies, it outlines the results of three ‘Deep Place’ case studies that offer an alternative approach to growth within the sustainable place-making context.