Galtung meets Daly: A framework for addressing inequity in ecological economics

•We use Galtung's conceptualisation of social structures and relations of inequity.•We integrate this with Daly's capital stock concept into a new framework.•This framework highlights socio-economic inequities related to the capital stock.•We illustrate the applicability of the framework to several diverse cases.

Since World War II, economic growth has been the leading policy goal in efforts to eradicate poverty. There is strong evidence that this strategy has gone hand in hand with increasing inequity and environmental degradation. We need concepts that will help us understand the inadequacies of the current economic system. We propose drawing from the ideas of sociologist Johan Galtung on social power structures, and those of economist Herman Daly on the physical features of the economy. A fusion of these perspectives creates a novel framework for analysis and a basis to formulate alternatives to the current growth strategy.