Beyond Growth and Partition: Post-growth and Ecological Perspectives on the Political Economy of Irish Reunification

ABSTRACT:This article adds important post-growth and ecological–economic perspectives to the growing debate on Irish reunification by placing the planetary emergency at the heart of the political economy of the issue. An account is provided of overlapping and interlinked global ecological crises, and the case is made that any argument for or against Irish reunification is ill-informed and incomplete without an understanding and acknowledgement of our stark and unstable planetary future. Moreover, this contribution to the debate presents some post-growth political economy perspectives that identify economic growth as the driver of ecological breakdown. Therefore, the Irish unity project (and all those involved in the debate, both for and against) must consider a post-growth position rooted in science-based and non-negotiable ecological realities. An ecological–economic and socio-economic critique of growth regimes, often proposed as the basis of a united Ireland economy, is presented to advance the need for a post-growth alternative.