Transformational solutions to climate change: support for alternative economic strategies?
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Current patterns of economic growth in industrialized nations like the United States have well-known social and environmental consequences. There are a variety of potential alternative economic structures that could address these consequences, including reducing economic growth (i.e., degrowth) and technological solutions. Many of the changes that researchers have examined to address the social and environmental consequences of economic growth would involve dramatic changes to the status quo of social systems including potential changes to public policy at multiple scales (e.g., local, national, international). It is often assumed that there is limited public support for these radical, or transformational, changes to public policies related to the economy and the environment, but few studies systematically examine the public’s support for such changes. This research reduces this gap via a representative multi-city social survey examining the following key questions: How does public support of policies addressing economic growth vary across three distinct metropolitan areas in the US state of Indiana (Bloomington, Fort Wayne, and Kokomo)? What factors influence public support for such policies across the three areas, and what are the implications of those differences for economic and environmental policy? We find that the strongest predictor of public support for policies that support alternative forms of economic growth is political orientation, but that there is widespread support of some policies across identities and other sociodemographic and household characteristics.