Seminar: "Planning for a sufficiency economy: lessons from Britain in World War II", by Richard Bärnthaler

The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce that Richard Bärnthaler, from the University of Leeds, will present a public talk as part of our monthly public seminar series.

Seminar: "Planning for a sufficiency economy: lessons from Britain in World War II"

Speaker: Richard Bärnthaler, University of Leeds

• Date: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
• Time:  12 -13h (CET)
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB and online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88555618060?pwd=iyq0DkbH3V9UWB2ieKaSrGQ33vJIbA.1

We are living through an unusual global moment in which two distinct but tightly linked forces are colliding: a worsening planetary conjuncture of accelerating ecological breakdown, and a rapidly shifting geopolitical and geoeconomic conjuncture that is reshaping global power and the possibilities for cooperation. This lecture asks what kinds of eco-social policy and politics are feasible under these conditions. I argue that a rapid transition toward a sufficiency economy is essential, one that guarantees universal needs while placing limits on resource use. Such a shift requires strong and pervasive state action, capable of planning, directing investment, and coordinating economic activity within the constraints of existing capitalist institutions. To explore the possibilities, the lecture turns to Britain’s World War II mobilisation, which reallocated productive capacity at unprecedented speed and scale, curtailed non-essential sectors, and ensured a robust social floor. Could similar principles guide a just and fast eco-social transition today?

Richard Bärnthaler is a political ecological economist at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, where he leads the Economics and Policy for Sustainability (Econopol) research group.