A compass for a socio-ecological transformation : designing indicators encompassing the government and the business level

Western societies are facing an unprecedented series of economic, social and ecological challenges (slow growth, inequalities, climate, biodiversity...). In order to meet these challenges, calls for a paradigm shift are multiplying. This shift - also called "socio-ecological transformation" – and its steering require appropriate economic, social and environmental indicators. The present thesis is dedicated to the analysis of such indicators, and the characteristics that they must gather to guide and support a change. The main originality of the thesis is to jointly analyze indicators at the government and business levels. This joint consideration aims at overcoming the absence of macro-micro conjunction in the construction of the existing indicators, which compromises the global steering of a socio-ecological transformation. The thesis is structured in three papers. The first one proposes a critical analysis of the articulation (or lack of articulation) between the indicators of the government and business levels. It successively studies traditional accounting and alternative indicators such as Bhutan's Gross National Happiness (GNH) or the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objective is to develop a theoretical framework for an optimal articulation between the indicators of the different levels. The second thesis paper looks in more detail at the SDGs as they exist in Belgium. It analyses the similarities or differences - and more generally the consistency - between the SDGs indicators of the federal level and those of companies in the pharmaceutical and retail sectors. Finally, the third thesis paper questions the potential of six existing indicators to be real alternatives to GDP, rather than close replicas. It highlights the key role of social and environmental inequality variables, as well as that of the coalitions of actors behind the indicators.