Richard Douthwaite: 5 books

Short-listed for 1992 GPA Award. Is economic growth improving our lives? In 1992, when the first edition of The Growth Illusion appeared, most people had little doubt that the answer was 'Yes'. Today, however, the climate of opinion has changed and there is widespread acceptance that, while growth...

The financial crisis that has blighted the world's richest countries since 2008 was a turning point in human history because it ushered in an era in which economies will tend to shrink rather than grow. Incomes will decline because the natural resources required for growth particularly oil the lifeblood...

In this Schumacher Briefing, Richard Douthwaite argues that just as different insects and animals have different effects on human society and the natural world, money has different effects according to its origins and purposes. Was it created to make profits for a commercial bank, or issued by a government...

With the deregulation of international trade and a free movement of capital, the world economy is more unstable than ever and liable to economic collapse. So precarious is it that it should no longer be relied upon to provided all the goods, fuel, food and services we need to live. As unemployment...

The idea that growth is beneficial underlies the economic strategies of all major political parties, but the reality of recent years is that the negative effects of growth have far outweighed any positive ones. In Ireland, growth has been the root cause of unemployment; in Britain it has led to an...