Online conference “COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities for Neo-humanism”

Online conference by Francesco Sarracino, senior economist at STATEC

Neohumanism indicates a cultural movement to put humankind back at the center of decision-making. It recognizes that GDP is not an indicator of well-being and that its "prevalence" for policy-making diverted the attention from important aspects of people's lives, such as the relationship with others and with the environment. It recognizes that the user-friendliness of GDP led to one-directional policies that serve well the markets, but not humankind and the environment. The social and environmental erosion is the result of such myopia.

As opposed to the "business as usual" scenario, Neohumanism requires "holistic" policies, i.e. policies that account for the direct and indirect effects on well-being. Neohumanism doesn't argue for de-growth, but de-emphasizes the need for growth at any cost: if growth undermines the environmental and social equilibria of the planet, then we should accept modest if not near-zero economic growth if this benefits people.