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The most important think tank you’ve never heard of: Resources for the Future and the history of economic thought in environmental practice

Project description

Role of future resource analysis in international environmental policies

Resources for the Future (RFF) operated from 1952 until the late 1990s. Despite its extensive history, the organisation’s development, contributions, and influence remain relatively underrecognised. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the REFUTURE project aims to analyse the role of the RFF think tank in shaping economic views on the environment, focusing on the concepts of scarcity, value, and externalities. It will examine how these ideas influenced US and international environmental policies, as well as RFF’s role in contributing to the great acceleration of material throughput and pollution since the mid-twentieth century.

Objective

The proposed project will undertake an historical analysis of the development, role and impact of the Washington DC based think tank Resources For the Future (RFF) - from its founding in 1952 to the late 1990s. REFUTURE investigates RFF’s role in constructing an economic vision of the environment around the concepts of scarcity, value, and externalities; and the subsequent application of that vision through US and international policies focused on managing the environment in relation to economic efficiency. By focusing on this history of economic thought in environmental practice, REFUTURE raises larger political economic questions regarding the contribution of RFF to i) the global ‘great acceleration’ of the Anthropocene in terms of material throughput and pollution concomitant with an emphasis on economic growth from the middle of the twentieth century; ii) what I call here the ‘great deceleration’ of effective environmental and climate policy from the early 1980s on – due to the overwhelming political focus on maintaining economic growth by governing nature and managing environmental impacts through the price mechanism. Drawing from the methodologies of intellectual history, economic sociology and historical political economy, I will undertake research at a number of key libraries and archives in the US and will significantly benefit from outbound placements and training at the Center for the History of Political Economy (HOPE) at Duke University and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) at Brown University. Overall research direction will greatly benefit from a placement at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – a key European centre for research and critical analysis into the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability. As an affiliated researcher here I will bring key insights from historical analysis of the applied economics of the environment.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Net EU contribution
€ 236 499,60
Address
EDIF A CAMPUS DE LA UAB BELLATERRA CERDANYOLA V
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
Spain
Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost
No data

Partners (3)