Eco-social policy research has emerged to address the interconnected and escalating pressures of social reproduction, climate change, and biodiversity loss, which require structural and behavioural changes for environmental and social welfare. However, conceptual ambiguity persists in applying an eco-social policy perspective to empirical research. After reviewing the interconnections and tensions of environmental and social policy, this article proposes a novel eco-social policy typology to assess policy discourses for their eco-social potential and to imagine different pathways towards sustainable policy-integration. The typology discusses four perspectives: Green Economy, Green Keynesianism, Recomposing Consumption and Production, and Degrowth. Each perspective is analysed based on its approach towards economic growth, the extent to which it appreciates public modes of governance, and its potential to either perpetuate existing institutionalised policymaking frameworks or lead to transformative shifts. This typology fosters constructive debates on integrating environmental and social policy, facilitates empirical research on policy proposals’ eco-social potential and offers guidance in evaluating policy discourses through an eco-social lens.
BaileyD (2015) The environmental paradox of the welfare state: The dynamics of sustainability. New Political Economy20(6): 793–811.
2.
BärnthalerRGoughI (2023) Provisioning for sufficiency: Envisaging production corridors. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy19(1): 2218690.
3.
BarryJ (2012) The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability: Human Flourishing in a Climate-Changed, Carbon-Constrained World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
BeddoeRCostanzaRFarleyJ, et al. (2009) Overcoming systemic roadblocks to sustainability: The evolutionary redesign of worldviews, institutions, and technologies. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA106(8): 2483–2489.
5.
BertenJLeiseringL (2017) Social policy by numbers: How international organisations construct global policy proposals. International Journal of Social Welfare26(2): 151–167.
BlackwaterB (2012) Two cheers for environmental Keynesianism. Capitalism Nature Socialism23(2): 51–74.
8.
BohnenbergerK (2022) Is it a green or brown job? A taxonomy of sustainable employment. Ecological Economics200: 107469.
9.
BonvinJ-MLaruffaF (2021) Towards a capability-oriented eco-social policy: Elements of a normative framework. Social Policy and Society21(3): 484–495.
10.
BowenAHepburnC (2014) Green growth: An assessment. Oxford Review of Economic Policy30(3): 407–422.
11.
BrandUWissenM (2018) The Limits to Capitalist Nature: Theorizing and Overcoming the Imperial Mode of Living. London; New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
12.
BrandUGörgCWissenM (2020) Overcoming neoliberal globalization: Social-ecological transformation from a Polanyian perspective and beyond. Globalizations17(1): 161–176.
13.
BrandlJZielinskaI (2020) Reviewing the smart city Vienna framework strategy’s potential as an eco-social policy in the context of quality of work and socio-ecological transformation. Sustainability12(3): 859.
14.
BüchsM (2021) Sustainable welfare: Independence between growth and welfare has to go both ways. Global Social Policy21(2): 323–327.
15.
BüchsMKochM (2017) Postgrowth and Wellbeing: Challenges to Sustainable Welfare. Cham: Palgrave Macmilan.
16.
BüchsMKochM (2019) Challenges for the degrowth transition: The debate about wellbeing. Futures105: 155–165.
17.
BüchsMBardsleyNDuweS (2011) Who bears the brunt? Distributional effects of climate change mitigation policies. Critical Social Policy31(2): 285–307.
18.
CatoMS (2013) The Paradox of Green Keynesianism. London: Green House.
19.
ClappJDauvergneP (2005) Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment. Cambridge, MA; London: The MIT Press.
20.
CookSSmithK (2012) Introduction – Green Economy and sustainable development: Bringing back the ‘social’. Development55(1): 5–9.
21.
CookSSmithKUttingP (2012) Green economy or green society? Contestation and policies for a fair transition. UNRISD occasional paper: Social dimensions of Green Economy and sustainable development 10. Available at: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/148808/1/862976227.pdf
22.
CooteAGoodwinN (2010) The Great Transition: Social justice and the core economy. London: New Economics Foundation.
23.
CosmeISantosRO’NeillDW (2017) Assessing the degrowth discourse: A review and analysis of academic degrowth policy proposals. Journal of Cleaner Production149: 321–334.
24.
CustersP (2010) The tasks of Keynesianism today: Green new deals as transition towards a zero growth economy?New Political Science32(2): 173–191.
25.
D’AlisaGDeriuMFedericoD (2015) Care. In: D’AlisaGFedericoDKallisG (eds) Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era. Oxon; New York: Routledge, pp. 63–66.
26.
DalyHE (2008) A Steady-State Economy: SDC Workshop ‘Confronting Structure – Achieving Economic Sustainability’. London: Sustainable Development Commission.
27.
DeemingCSmythPE (2018) Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Bristol: Policy Press.
28.
DuitAFeindtPHMeadowcroftJ (2015) Greening Leviathan: The rise of the environmental state?Environmental Politics25(1): 1–23.
29.
FanningALO'NeillDWBüchsM (2020) Provisioning systems for a good life within planetary boundaries. Global Environmental Change64: 102135.
30.
FitzpatrickT (2011) Challenges for social policy. In: FitzpatrickT (ed.) Understanding the Environment and Social Policy. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 61–90.
31.
FuchsD (2007) Business Power in Global Governance. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
32.
FuchsDSahakianMGumbertT, et al. (2021) Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits. Oxon; New York: Routledge.
33.
GoldsteinJTyfieldD (2017) Green Keynesianism: Bringing the entrepreneurial state back in(to question)?Science as Culture27(1): 74–97.
34.
GoughI (2013) Climate change, social policy, and global governance. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy29(3): 185–203.
35.
GoughI (2017) Heat, Greed and Human Need: Climate Change, Capitalism and Sustainable Wellbeing. Cheltenham; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
36.
GoughIMeadowcroftJ (2011) Decarbonizing the welfare state. In: JohnSDNorgaardRBSchlosbergD (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 490–503.
37.
GoughITherbornG (2010) The global future of welfare states. In: CastlesFGLeibfriedSLewisJ, et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 703–720.
38.
HarrisJM (2013) Green Keynesianism: Beyond standard growth paradigms. GDAE working papers 13-0, February. Medford, MA: Tufts University.
39.
HickelJ (2020) What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations18: 1105–1111.
40.
HickelJKallisG (2020) Is green growth possible?New Political Economy25(4): 469–486.
HubacekKBaiocchiGFengK, et al. (2017) Global carbon inequality. Energy, Ecology and Environment2(6): 361–369.
43.
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2022) Position Paper of the United Nations Inter-agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy: Advancing the 2020 Agenda through the Social and Solidarity Economy. Geneva: ILO.
JacksonTVictorP (2018) Confronting inequality in a post-growth world: Basic income, factor substitution and the future of work. CUSP working paper series no 11. Available at: https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/wp11/
46.
JacobsM (2013) Green growth: Economic theory and political discourse. In: FalknerR (ed.) Handbook of Global Climate and Environmental Policy. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 197–214.
47.
KaaschASchulze WaltrupR (2021) Introduction – Global eco-social policy: Contestation within an emerging policy era?Global Social Policy21(2): 319–322.
48.
KallisGKostakisVLangeS, et al. (2018) Research on degrowth. Annual Review of Environment and Resources43: 291–316.
49.
KerschnerC (2010) Economic de-growth vs. steady-state economy. Journal of Cleaner Production18(6): 544–551.
50.
KochM (2020) The state in the transformation to a sustainable postgrowth economy. Environmental Politics29(1): 115–133.
51.
KochMFritzM (2014) Building the eco-social state: Do welfare regimes matter?Journal of Social Policy43(4): 679–703.
52.
KöhlerG (2016) Assessing the SDGs from the standpoint of eco-social policy: Using the SDGs subversively. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy32(2): 149–164.
53.
KrauseD (2021) Uncovering different degrees of eco-social policy. Global Social Policy21(2): 332–334.
54.
KrauseDStevisDHujoK, et al. (2022) Just transitions for a new eco-social contract: Analysing the relations between welfare regimes and transition pathways. Transfer28(3): 367–382.
55.
KreininH (2020) Typologies of ‘just transitions’: Towards social-ecological transformation. Ecological economic papers 35, October. Vienna: WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
56.
KuhnleSSanderA (2010) The emergence of the western welfare state. In: CastlesFGLeibfriedSLewisJ, et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 61–80.
57.
LakemanS (2021) IOs and climate change: Toward global eco-social policy. In: MartensKNiemannDKaaschA (eds) International Organizations in Global Social Governance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 255–273.
58.
LambWFAntalMBohnenbergerK, et al. (2020) What are the social outcomes of climate policies? A systematic map and review of the ex-post literature. Environmental Research Letters15(11): 11306.
59.
LindelleeJAlkan OlssonJKochM (2021) Operationalizing sustainable welfare and co-developing eco-social policies by prioritizing human needs. Global Social Policy21(2): 328–331.
60.
LorekSFuchsD (2013) Strong sustainable consumption governance: Precondition for a degrowth path?Journal of Cleaner Production38: 36–43.
61.
McAfeeK (2012) Nature in the market-world: Ecosystem services and inequality. Development55(1): 25–33.
62.
MandelliM (2022) Understanding eco-social policies: A proposed definition and typology. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research28(3): 333–348.
63.
MeadowcroftJ (2005) From welfare state to ecostate. In: EckerselyRBarryJ (eds) The State and the Global Ecological Crisis. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 3–23.
64.
MolAPJSpaargarenG (2000) Ecological modernisation theory in debate: A review. Environmental Politics9(1): 17–49.
65.
NewellPPatersonM (2010) Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
66.
NovyA (2022) The political trilemma of contemporary social-ecological transformation: Lessons from Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation. Globalizations19(1): 59–80.
67.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2021) The Inequality-Environment Nexus: Towards a People-Centred Green Transition. Paris: OECD.
68.
O’NeillDWFanningALLambWF, et al. (2018) A good life for all within planetary boundaries. Nature Sustainability1(2): 88–95.
69.
O’NeillK (2009) The Environment and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
70.
OswaldYOwenASteinbergerJK (2020) Large inequality in international and intranational energy footprints between income groups and across consumption categories. Nature Energy5(3): 231–239.
71.
OttoAGugushviliD (2020) Eco-social divides in Europe: Public attitudes towards welfare and climate change policies. Sustainability12(1): 404.
72.
PikettyT (2014) Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
73.
Reyes-GarcíaVBabigumiraRPyhalaA, et al. (2016) Subjective wellbeing and income: Empirical patterns in the rural developing world. J Happiness Stud17(2): 773–791.
74.
RockströmJSteffenWNooneK, et al. (2009) A safe operating space for humanity. Nature461(7263): 472–475.
75.
SanneC (2002) Willing consumers – Or locked-in? Policies for a sustainable consumption. Ecological Economics42(1–2): 273–287.
76.
SchneiderFKallisGMartinez-AlierJ (2010) Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability: Introduction to this special issue. Journal of Cleaner Production18(6): 511–518.
77.
StiglitzJSenAFitoussiJ-P (2010) Mis-measuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn’t Add Up. New York: The New Press.
78.
TienhaaraK (2018) Green Keynesianism and the Global Financial Crisis. London; New York: Routledge.
79.
TienhaaraKRobinsonJ (2022) Routledge Handbook on the Green New Deal. London; New York: Routledge.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2020) Human Development Report: The Next Frontier – Human Development and the Anthropocene. New York: UNDP.
82.
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) (2022) Crises of Inequality: Shifting Power for a New Eco-Social Contract. Geneva: UNRISD.
83.
UttingP (2013) Pathways to sustainability in a crisis-ridden world. In: GeneveyRPachauriRKTubianaL (eds) Reducing Inequalities: A Sustainable Development Challenge. Delhi, India: TERI Press, pp. 175–190.
84.
WaringM (1988) If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
85.
WilkinsonRPickettK (2009) The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London: Allen Lane.
86.
WinstonN (2022) Sustainable community development: Integrating social and environmental sustainability for sustainable housing and communities. Sustainable Development30(1): 191–202.
87.
ZimmermannKGrazianoP (2020) Mapping different worlds of eco-welfare states. Sustainability12(5): 1819.
