Utopia competition: a new approach to the micro-foundations of sustainability transitions

Almudi, I. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Fatas-Villafranca, F. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Potts, J.

Resumen: We present a new evolutionary political economy approach to the study of transition dynamics based on a co-evolutionary model of differential citizen contributions to competing ‘utopias’—market fundamentalism, socialism, and environmentalism. We model sustainability transitions as an outcome of ‘utopia competition’ in which environmentalism manages to coexist with the market, while socialism vanishes. Our simulation-based framework suggests that the individual economic contributions of citizens to the battle of ideas—both the distribution within a utopia, and the interaction between different utopias—are crucial but much overlooked micro-factors in explaining the dynamics of sustainability transitions.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1007/s10818-016-9239-2

Año: 2017

Publicado en: Journal of Bioeconomics 19 (2017), 165-185
ISSN: 1387-6996

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.321 - Geography, Planning and Development (Q2) - Economics and Econometrics (Q3)

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Fund. Análisis Económico (Dpto. Análisis Económico)