Post-growth in municipal economic development: Illusion or reality?
Introduction. Sustainable development discourse is getting more and more focused on the theory of post-growth, which presupposes the transformation of an economic system to achieve economic and social goals with no specific growth and no new non-renewable resources in a better environmental context. However, a significant number of geopolitical, economic, epidemiological, and environmental shocks occurred at the beginning of this century call into question the possibility of economic growth in municipalities as the basis for improving the quality of life. The hypothesis of the research is that the post-growth is both the model for sustainable development and an unbiased type of evolutional development of economic systems. Purpose. The article refers to the municipalities in Sverdlovsk oblast for the periods of 2010, 2015, 2020–2023 to identify the post-growth features in a municipal economy. Materials and methods. To identify the signs of post-growth, the authors propose applying the assessment of gross municipal product growth rates (0–1% in the long term) and the dynamics of indicators of production factors (land, labour, capital) in the territory under local government. Results. The paper shows that post-growth is not only the model for sustainable development which is rooted in the diversified approach to the economic growth and structural reorganization of economy with the focus on the most vital industries, but also an economic evolutionary stage, when further growth is impractical due to the level of achieved development or impossible due to resource constraints associated with the depletion of traditional production factors in the territory. Sverdlovsk oblast revealed the sings of post-growth in four municipalities: Tavda and Rezh municipalities, Kamensk-Uralsk city district, Pervouralsk municipality. Compared to 2010, gross municipal product in 2016–2023 is shown to decrease in 44 municipalities in the context of population decline in 62 municipalities, less revenue from the land tax in 13 territories, ratio between investment and wear less than 100 % in 28 territories, which proves the limited budget and investment possibilities in a significant number of territories. Conclusions. The results of the study highlight the need to reintegrate organizational, management, and financial factors into the development of municipal economies.