Caldera of Economic Growth

Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the article (conversation about the painful issues) offers arguments for expanding the conceptual apparatus of economic science allowing for a more accurate interpretation of one of the forms of economic dynamicscalled economic growth. Under the conditions of an increasingly realised economic objective of society – sustainable development – the concept of economic growth in the conditions of limited (and in some cases – finite) resources requires a new understanding. This understanding may emerge particularly on the basis of updating the conceptual apparatus. The author express doubts about the role of economic growth as a public benefit in the context of neoclassical and later theories of growth. The author believes the concept of ‘caldera’ enables a qualitative development of the theory of economic dynamics, creating its new paradigm within the framework of the new political economy. Furthermore, the authors argue the signifi cance of ideas of A.V. Buzgalin and A.I. Kolganov about the creatosphere in the context of assessing the quality of economic growth and of S.D. Bodrunov's theory of noonomics as a possible model of socio-economic development. At the same time, the author puts forward the hypothesis thateconomic development and economic growth are weakly correlated phenomena, and zero growth model may support the development. The authors defi ne the essence of economic development in the XXI century and make specifi c proposals for updating the conceptual apparatus of the new economic science.