How adequate Gdp is as a measure of development has always been a matter of debate, but attempts to define a more holistic concept of development have so far failed. As well as considering national and international policy initiatives aimed at defining agreed paradigms of sustainable development, this article offers to identify a series of theoretical and cultural elements on which a measurement of wellbeing compatible with the idea of sustainability can be based. The possibility of translating these elements into a concrete example is demonstrated in the analysis of the Feem Si (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Sustainability index), a flexible tool that can simulate the impact of various policies, thus making a new paradigm of sustainable development operative. only subscribers can see the full article

The article analyses the causes of the apparent paradox between the strongly positive response in public debate to the criticism of Gdp as inadequate in measuring progress, and the continuing centrality of economic growth in the political aims that are actually pursued. Economic growth requires the constant enlargement of markets, without which there would be the risk of economic collapse, and in this situation it continues to be the premise of security quite apart from its value in terms of wellbeing, progress and sustainability. To be able to pursue these aims without it will require more than measurements going «beyond Gdp» further than they already do, as an overall reconsideration is necessary that will make it possible to translate increased productivity into shorter working hours rather than greater production, and shift decision-making as to what, how much, for whom, where and how we produce from the market to society.only subscribers can see the full article