The Political Economy of COVID-19: Are We Closer to a Post-Growth World?

Theofanis Papageorgiou and Yorgos Pisinas

Journal of Economic Issues, 2025, vol. 59, issue 1, 86-102

Abstract: COVID-19 was a devastating rift in history, one attributed to the expansion of the anthroposphere, exposing the flaws of mainstream economics and opening social perception to change, given that almost every part of everyday life was altered. The pandemic demanded a rethinking of the world in terms other than monetary, considering the losses in terms of deaths, psychological costs of inclusion, social isolation, and lost use-values. Nonetheless, policy responses to COVID-19 for political, economic, and ecological matters did not differ greatly from those from the pre-pandemic era. We argue for a post-growth paradigm shift, drawing from use-values analysis, the experience of COVID-19, and the concepts of equality, democracy, and reduced working time. The social reconfiguration of ethics is, to an extent, antithetical to the governmental responses and allows for a surge of radical ecology and a new hegemonic agenda of endogenous degrowth in the post-COVID world.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2025.2455663

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