Publications
A European Agenda To Navigate Uncertain Times
Coordinators and Policy Leads of SPES, ToBe, WISE Horizons, WISER, in collaboration with MERGE
This paper was written at the request of DG-RTD of the European Commission. It was co-written by the consortium coordinators and policy leads of four Horizon Europe research and innovation projects: SPES, ToBe, WISE Horizons and WISER. These projects also collaborate in the Coordination and Support Action called MERGE. The contents of the report do not necessarily reflect the opinion of all researchers and institutes involved in these consortia.
Social sustainability in the decarbonized welfare state: Social policy as a buffer against poverty related to environmental taxes
Kenneth Nelson, Arvid Lindh, and Pär Dalén
Decarbonization, environmental protection, and sustainable development are more topical than ever. Despite long-standing debates about the regressive profile of environmental taxes, the welfare state’s role in buffering adverse distributive impacts of climate policy is largely unexplored. We examine if social policy shields households from falling into poverty due to environmental taxes tied to consumption. We specifically focus on the importance of income replacement in social insurance and social assistance. To enable detailed assessments of the distributive outcomes of environmental policy, we impute environmental taxes into the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Our comparative analysis of 26 European countries indicates that the welfare state protects households from relative income poverty due to environmental taxes. Moreover, comparisons between educational groups suggest that both social insurance and social assistance play different yet complementary roles in reducing socio-economic gradients in poverty related to environmental taxes.
Time ToBe Transformative: Strengthening sustainable wellbeing and economic alternative
Liisa Häikiö and Tuuli Hirvilammi
Read ToBe’s first Policy Brief! It gives research-based insights for on-going discussion about how to transform the economy, design desirable policy options and measure development towards sustainability paradigm.
Response to the Call for submissions: Thematic report to the UN Human Rights Council “Eradicating poverty in a post-growth context: preparing for the next Development Goals”
Javier Cuestas-Caza, Milena Büchs, Tuuli Hirvilammi and Liisa Häikiö
ToBe’s response to Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutte’s open call to provide written input for his thematic report on one or more of the following issues: government’s measures of social progress complementing GDP, measures to ensure that growth primarily benefits the bottom 40 per cent of the population, obstacles for alternative development pathways, and how to overcome path dependencies.
Deliverables
Theories and Indicators
D1.2 Sufficiency as a confluence for post-growth streams
This report explores sufficiency as a unifying concept across post-growth streams, namely Degrowth, the Doughnut economy and the Well-being economy, suggesting that embracing sufficiency could enhance coherence and effectiveness in post-growth transitions. It traces sufficiency’s historical roots and proposes refined definitions. Considering that the notion is currently gaining momentum, the report urges for the development of co-constructed sufficiency indicators and policies.
D1.3 Report on transformative indicators initiatives for a sustainable wellbeing paradigm
This deliverable explores the potential of Transformative Indicators Initiatives (T-IIs) to reshape policymaking within the European Union (EU), aiming to overcome the pre-eminence of conventional socio-economic evaluations such as GDP.
D1.5 Policy Brief (1st Edition)
This policy brief gives research-based insights for on-going discussion about how to transform the economy, design desirable policy options and measure development towards sustainability paradigm.
Identifying innovative policy options and understanding processes of change
D3.1 Framework for the case studies
Document introducing a case study framework that will be used in Work Package 3 of the “ToBe” project to explore drivers, barriers and outcomes of alternative growth initiatives in the Global North and the Global South, and how these dynamics contribute to change, and even transformation, of larger economic systems and practices. The focus is on change from ‘business as usual’ to alternative economic systems.
Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation
D5.1. ToBe Communication and Dissemination Plan
Document containing general information on the ToBe project and outlining the communication and dissemination activities to be undertaken during the three years of the project. It comprises a presentation of the communication and dissemination activities, as well as information on ToBe’s objectives and expected impact. It provides an overview of the project’s key messages, target group segmentation and communication instruments. Furthermore, it explains the designated evaluation and monitoring methods, elaborates on internal communication measures, and illustrates the project’s visual identity and branding.
D5.2. Communication Activity Report V.1
This document is presenting the activities carried out within ToBe WP5 Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation during the first 6 months of the project (March – August 2023). The progresses with regard to visual identity, website, social media channels, newsletter and events are presented.
D5.5. ToBe Exploitation and Sustainability Plan vol. 1
This document is the first of two Exploitation and Sustainability Plans. It serves as an initial guide to maximising ToBe’s results thereby creating an effective impact at scientific, social and economic levels. By laying out a plan, from the identification of exploitable results to the expected impact these will have, the aim is to describe the exploitation efforts in order to ensure that the project’s results continue to be utilised beyond ToBe’s contractual end date.