Thesis
How Class Position and Economic Growth Ideology Shape Public Support for Degrowth Policy
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2025
Abstract
Research in environmental sociology and beyond demonstrates that economic growth is at the root of global environmental crises, from climate change to biodiversity loss. The degrowth movement, centered on its criticism of infinite economic growth, has gained considerable attention from policymakers, activists, and the public. However, research in the Treadmill of Production tradition suggests that the ideology of economic growth is quite powerful—particularly among the working class—and is likely to severely constrain political support for degrowth policy. This study makes two contributions. First, I demonstrate the level of support among the U.S. public for degrowth policies. Second, I examine how class position and beliefs about economic growth independently and in interaction shape support for degrowth policy. I apply regression analyses to a large non-probability sample of the US population (n=1,591) to examine the contribution of economic growth ideology and class position to support for degrowth policy proposals. Results suggest that higher support for economic growth ideology is significantly associated with lower degrowth policy support. Of the class position measures tested, subjective class yields statistical significance with respondents who identified as having lower subjective class to be most supportive of degrowth policies. In practical terms, however, there is almost no difference in the number of policies supported. The interaction also yields no statistical significance. These findings suggest that while Treadmill theory and the degrowth perspective both have some of their hypotheses supported, regarding growth ideology and class, these variables do not have a substantive effect on support for degrowth policy.
Metrics
1 Record Views
Details
- Title
- How Class Position and Economic Growth Ideology Shape Public Support for Degrowth Policy
- Creators
- Kayla Lendy
- Contributors
- Dylan Bugden (Advisor)Erik Johnson (Committee Member)Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson (Committee Member)Orla M. Kelly (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Sociology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 60
- Identifiers
- 99901357898201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis