Conceptualising an Alternative Political Economy of Sustainability: The Contributions of Radical Ecology and Heterodox Economics

The chapters of this volume demonstrate, from various theoretical perspectives of radical ecology and heterodox economics (in particular, degrowth, ecosocialism, original institutional economics, theories of complex systems), the conceptual, ontological, epistemological and political economic limitations of existing mainstream accounts of sustainability, grounded, as they are, in neoclassical environmental economics.

The international cast list of contributors argues in favour of heterodox theories to inform an alternative political economy of socially just sustainability by considering how these are grounded in a more realistic, holistic and critical economics. Each chapter in this section examines how the schools of thought under consideration articulate the political economic foundations of "sustainability" and, in turn, what these mean in-practice over how, in policy action, sustainability should be achieved.

This volume is essential reading for anyone concerned with a viable alternative conception of sustainable economy, and in particular with readers from all strands of radical ecology and heterodox economics, policy makers, institutions and organisations dealing with the issues of sustainability.