Transitioning to Post-Growth Cities

Cities around the world depend on growth, but such growth has become, to use Herman Daly’s term, uneconomic—the costs of growth, within and beyond the cities’ boundaries, far exceed the benefits. Post-growth cities are cities that thrive without growth, serving equitably the needs of their population without exceeding their share of planetary boundaries. What does an urban post-growth vision look like and what policies would it entail? Here, we present seven policy-oriented guidelines for cities that want to commit to a post-growth transition. We argue that cities should limit the financialization of their assets, socialize basic infrastructures and spaces, redistribute income, and guarantee access to services, decoupling human well-being from growth in this way and breaking the dependence of cities and city administrations upon growth.