The Real Project

Our world faces multiple interlocking crises. The global economy is driving dangerous climate breakdown and overshooting multiple planetary boundaries. At the same time, large portions of the human population remain unable to meet basic needs. How can we achieve rapid emissions reductions and bring resource use back to sustainable levels while at the same time ending poverty and ensuring good lives for all? This is a question of major societal importance, which requires rigorous scientific answers. The REAL project is designed to deliver on this objective. Our research project aims to fill a large social science gap, between the empirical and quantitative imperative to remain within planetary boundaries, and the policy-provision-politics configurations that would enable our societies to change course while prioritising human wellbeing. Within the project, we identify core elements of research essential to bridging post-growth trajectories with real-world feasibility. Our focus areas include inter- and intra-national inequalities, trade relations and unequal exchange, labour and wellbeing, existing examples of post-growth, and economic democracy. REAL is a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy project led by Profs Julia Steinberger (UNIL Lausanne), Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis (UAB Barcelona), running from 2023-2029.