Overview

There is an empirical core that unites historic work on the ‘limits to growth’, recent inheritors to the ecological economics this spawned, the activism and critical analysis of capitalism known as post or degrowth. This is the evidence that the permanent and sufficient, absolute decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions and resource consumption required to avert multiple ecological crises is illusory. From this flows the realisation that economic growth, at least as it is currently conceived in public policy, is in itself a problem. Not only does the pursuit of growth exacerbate ecological breakdown but even in its own terms it fails. Beyond a certain level increasing economic growth appears to have little or even a negative impact on wellbeing. To date the majority of scholarship critical of growth has taken place either at a high level of abstraction, for example modelling the material stocks and flows in the economy or at the local level through the reification of small scale solutions for example co-operatives and urban agriculture. Whilst neither is inherently problematic for planning scholars it creates something of a void around the city, regional and national level of policy making.

The question of the relationship between planning and economic growth is something a handful of planning academics are beginning to address. Academics at the Bartlett School of Planning have been exploring the question of growth for some time and there is growing interest in what this means for issues central to planning such as the provision of transport, infrastructure and housing. We believe planning has much to contribute to the discussion of what a world beyond growth might look like. The knowledge acquired from a long history of planning theory and research is valuable in both operationalising but also pointing out the implications of any planned reduction in economic activity. Planning has historically played a role in regulating the encroachment on the natural world and promoting wellbeing but how does it function without the motor of economic growth to drive it? How are central concerns such as housing need or poor access to the services necessary for people to live well to be addressed when the resources to construct housing or infrastructure and the land available are increasingly limited?

Dr Dan Durrant, The Bartlett School of Planning
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  • Integrating principles of post-growth into teaching on multiple BSP postgraduate and undergraduate modules
  • Beyond Growth Workshop July 2023
  • Does a City Need to Grow? Workshop with Cambridge University Department of Land Economy June 2024.
  • Two tracks at the European Society for Ecological Economics Degrowth Conference June 2024 in Vigo.
  • Cluster members presenting at the 2025 European Society for Ecological Economics Degrowth Conference June 2025 in Oslo.
  • Cluster members Anna Pagani, Lucia Cerrada Morato and Dan Durrant participate in a panel discussion as part of the Urban Retrofit project away day in London in May 2025.
  • Daniel Durrant, Christian Lamker & Yvonne Rydin (2023) The Potential of Post-Growth Planning: Re-Tooling the Planning Profession for Moving beyond Growth, Planning Theory & Practice, 24:2, 287-295, DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2023.2198876
  • A Special Issue of the Journal Built Environment See;
  • Daniel Durrant, Marjan Marjanović & Yvonne Rydin (2025) Post-Growth Planning, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.5
  • Marjanović, Durrant & Thompson (2025) Planning for Degrowth: Insights from Shrinking Cities, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025  https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.16
  • Gabrieli (2025) Economics of Post-Growth Planning: Cooperation and Altruism, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.35
  • Cerrada Morato (2025) Learning from an Ordinary Suburban Post-Growth Struggle: Not by Design, Nor by Disaster, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.50
  • Pagani, Macmillan, Savini, Davis and Zimmerman (2025) What If There Were a Moratorium on New Housebuilding? An Exploratory Study with London-Based Housing Associations, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.73
  • Rydin (2025) Challenging Pro-Growth Dynamics by Developing Planning Knowledges for Diverse Economies, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.95
  • Natarajan (2025) Social Infrastructures for Post-Growth Value Generation: School-Based Initiatives in London, Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.113
  • Walton (2025) Can Zero-Carbon Development be Delivered through the Existing English Legal and Policy Planning Framework? Built Environment, 51: 1 Spring 2025 https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.51.1.132

  • Yvonne Rydin (2025) Planning Without Growth, Policy Press. ISBN 978-1447369776
  • Filipa Matos Wunderlich (2024) Temporal Urban Design: Temporality, Rhythm and Place, Routledge ISBN 9781472468703 
  • (Research cluster member Filipa Wunderlich explores alternative post-growth or growth agnostic models like Kate Raworth’s Doughnut economics as part of her call for a paradigm shift in urban design)

  • Following a presentation by Michael Edwards to London Planning and Development Forum in March 2025 cluster members produced the a comment piece. See;
  • Growth or good growth? | Michael Edwards, Matt Thompson and Jessica Ferm in Planning in London http://www.planninginlondon.com/HTML/Archive/PiL132.htm

  • October 2024. Strategic planning for degrowth: synergy, regions, and the doughnut of Amsterdam. An event with Federico Savini of the University of Amsterdam
  • May 2025. Book Launch for Yvonne Rydin’s Planning Without Growth Postcapitalist Countrysides (2025) edited by Nick Gallent, Menelaos Gkartzios, Mark Scott and Andrew Purves with chapters from cluster member Matt Thompson. And, the Built Environment Special Issue on Post Growth Planning.
  • May 2025. Airport Expansion and 'Post Aviation Futures. An event with Professors Steven Griggs (Staffordshire University) and David Howarth (University of Essex).
  • June 2025. How to Save the City. An event with Paul Chatterton of the University of Leeds.

Credit: Photo by Kevin Bergen on Unsplash

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