The end of our high-growth world was underway well before Covid arrived and the relentless pursuit of 'more' has delivered climate catastrophe, social inequality and financial instability – and left us ill prepared for life in a global pandemic. Drawing from global data, Danny Dorling points out that human progress has been slowing down since the early 1970s, revealing the decline in fertility rates, GDP per person, and even the frequency of new social movements have all steadily declined in recent history. Rather than a cause for despair, in Slowdown he argues that this is a moment of promise and a chance of stability.

Tim Jackson’s Post-Growth is a passionate and provocative book daring us to imagine a world beyond capitalism – a place where relationship and meaning take precedence over profits and power. Weaving together philosophical reflection, economic insight and social vision, it is a manifesto for system change and an invitation to rekindle a debate about the human condition.

Danny Dorling holds professorships at Oxford, Goldsmiths London and Bristol.

Tim Jackson is an ecological economist and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

Katherine Trebeck is an advocate for economic system change and author of The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown-Up Economy.