Is Governmentality the Missing Link for Greening the Economic Growth?

Janaka Siyambalapitiya, Xu Zhang and Xiaobing Liu
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Janaka Siyambalapitiya: Department of Enterprise Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, No. 02, Linggong Road, Dalian 116024, China
Xu Zhang: Department of Enterprise Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, No. 02, Linggong Road, Dalian 116024, China
Xiaobing Liu: Department of Enterprise Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, No. 02, Linggong Road, Dalian 116024, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: The new concept of “green growth” appears to be an economic growth model, which balances environment sustainability and fostering of economic growth. Yet, much of the green growth research has failed to address the real extent of interconnections and complexity of the relationship between governance and economic, social, and environmental structures. Furthermore, current green growth research tends to focus on the country level, such as the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable development indices, which risks ignoring the additional impacts on micro industrial economies. The lack of connection between green growth and good governance—known as environmental governance—is a crucial gap in practical adoption. Therefore, this study uses Foucault’s governmentality lens to view green growth as a technique of government, seeking an environmentally focused eco-governmentality. We examine the transformation, differential definitions, and critical dimensions of green growth in relation to particular case studies taken from China and South Korea and frame them for future sustainable studies. The findings of this study highlight the significant role of interdisciplinary research, as well both bottom-up and top-down initiatives, on enabling the transition to green growth. The proposed research framework and implementation strategy also identifies new avenues for future research and practices in the field of sustainable development, making it one of the study’s key contributions to the literature.

Keywords: green growth; circular economy; governmentality; environmental management; sustainable management; economic growth model; environmental sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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