Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?
Kate Raworth, Helen Thompson and Bim Afolami MP debate what makes a prosperous society, and how important economic growth is in reaching it, with chair Kamal Ahmed.
Hear the different answers to help you decide who’s right.
As the UK and other countries around the world grapple with a bleak economic forecast and the creeping effects of climate change, the debate over economic growth and its role in our economies has come into sharp focus.
Some argue that growth is the foundation upon which prosperity is built and that it offers a route out of economic decline. Others argue that growth worsens inequality and causes devastating impacts on the natural world.
Instead, they contend, we should aim to stop or even reverse growth and define prosperity in broader terms than the narrow definition of GDP.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? In this discussion, you hear the arguments to help you decide.
Kate Raworth is an economist and author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.
Bim Afolami is Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden since 2017.
Kamal Ahmed is a journalist, author and former BBC News Editorial Director.
Presented by the Southbank Centre and Intelligence Squared
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For ages 16+
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