Qualitative growth
The concept of qualitative growth is based on the assumption that the quality of products and services increases through increasing ability and knowledge of the world population that is converted into innovations . Long-lasting, well-maintained and energy-saving devices and systems are the key to lower consumption of raw materials and lower emissions . The mass business with short-lived cheap products that is common today will therefore have to be replaced again by durable quality goods with guaranteed service . The manufacturing industry can thus increase the added value through quality improvement while the turnover of materials is falling. Should this necessary structural change set free labor , there would be an almost infinite need for social, educational and cultural services for a world population that is largely poor and excluded from sources of knowledge .
As an economic strategy and political program, qualitative growth responds to the growth criticism expressed in particular by ecologists , but distinguishes itself from the more radical demands of the growth-critical movement for growth reduction.
Measurement of qualitative growth
The increase in the quality of life in an economy achieved with qualitative economic growth is measured using various indicators , depending on the model . The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has defined eight main objectives as starting points for an indicator system:
- health
- Learning and training
- Quality of working life
- Free time and time management
- economic situation and purchasing power
- physical environment
- personal security
- social participation opportunities
In this model, ratios are used for calculation.
Criticism of the concept
Growth critics consider qualitative growth to be as paradoxical as it is utopian and reject it. Instead, they demand overcoming the pressure to grow . For example, Niko Paech argues that “an abundance of rebound effects will destroy all savings” and that a real sustainability perspective is only conceivable in a “post-growth economy”. The rejection of qualitative growth is largely consensus within the growth-critical movement .
Qualitative growth of companies
The term qualitative growth is used not only in the macroeconomic context, but also in the area of corporate management. It describes a development process through which a company achieves a higher level of service quality and sustainability. The prerequisite for this is a further development of management quality, work quality and process quality in the company as well as quality-oriented partner management along the value chain.
See also
- Sustainable Economic Wealth Index
- Study Commission Growth, Prosperity, Quality of Life - Paths to Sustainable Business and Social Progress in the Social Market Economy
literature
- Herwig Büchele , Anton Pelinka (ed.): Qualitative economic growth - a challenge for the world . Innsbruck University Press, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902811-65-3 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles I. Jones: Introduction to Economic Growth , 2002, ISBN 0393977455 , p. 12. Graphic "World per capita GDP and growth rates", Jones uses data from Robert E. Lucas jr. (1998) and Angus Maddison (1995).
- ↑ Ernst Schmitter: Refusal to grow: More and more people are saying no to the need to grow - including the “Green New Deal”. (PDF) In: The raven Ralf . December 2009, pp. 8–9 , accessed on August 18, 2016 .
- ↑ Niko Paech: Growth light? Qualitative growth is a utopia . In: Science & Environment INTERDISCIPLINARY, 13/2009, p. 85.
- ^ Niko Paech: The post-growth economy - a vademecum . In: Zeitschrift für Sozialökonomie 46 / 160–161, pp. 28–31.
- ↑ Dennis Eversberg and Matthias Schmelzer: On the self-problematization of the criticism of capitalism: Four theses on the emerging degrowth movement , research journal Social Movements , Issue 1/2016, Verlag De Gruyter, Berlin.
- ↑ Sternad Dietmar, Mödritscher Gernot: Qualitative growth: the way to sustainable corporate success . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-18879-5 .