Infinite Growth? – On the Economy of Evermore
30.06.2011
*with Hans-Christoph Binswanger, Bertram Schefold, and Anton Föllmi, Moderation: Peter Siller*
Economic thinking has changed in the wake of financial and economic crises. However, the paradigm of economic growth has remained more or less unchanged in the theory and practice of political economics. Let us investigate this further: What is our fundamental concept of growth? Do we need economic growth? If so, in what areas? And can growth be reconciled with ecology? With business ethicist Prof. Hans Christoph Binswanger (University of St. Gallen), economist Dr. Toni Föllmi, former Director of the Swiss National Bank Basel, and economist Prof. Bertram Schefold from the Frankfurt Excellence Cluster, the sixth Stadtgespräch presented a group of high-ranking panelists, who engaged in a competent and controversial discussion on the topic.
*Prof. Hans Christoph Binswanger* (*1929) is former Economist and used to work at St. Gallen University. He is known as a non-Marxist critic of the growth paradigm. Binswanger invented an “Ecological Tax Reform”.
*Prof. Bertram Schefold* (*1943) is Professor for Economics, especially Economical Theory. He originally studied Mathematics, Theoretical Physics and Philosophy and later turned to Economics. Since the 1980s he has been occupied with economical Theory but also with environmental policy and energy analysis.
*Dr. Toni Föllmi* (*1938) was Director of the Swiss National Bank in Basel from 1985 until 2003. He has been occupied with questions concerning economical ethics for a long time. He especially focuses on monetary policy and in how far a just distribution of wealth is possible.
*Peter Siller* (* 1970) is Scientific Manager of the Cluster of Excellence `The Formation of Normative Orders’ at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Formerly he was the director of the domestic divisions of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and a member of the planning staff at the German Foreign Ministry. He studied law and philosophy. In addition he is founder and managing editor of the journal `polar’ which appears twice yearly in the Campus Verlag (www.polar-zeitschrift.de). He numerous publications on political philosophy and practice include `Rechtsphilosophische Kontroversen der Gegenwart’ (1999), `Politik als Inszenierung’ (2000), `Zukunft der Programmpartei’ (2002), `Arbeit der Zukunft’ (2006), `Politik der Gerechtigkeit’ (2009).
The Stadtgespräch takes place in conjunction with “The Formation of Normative Orders” event series hosted by the Cluster of Excellence of the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main in collaboration with the Frankfurter Kunstverein.