The 2007/8 economic crisis and the global Great Recession led to widespread turmoil and instability. In Europe, unprecedented reductions in per capita resource use were crisis-driven rather than the result of deliberate policies. This study examines material use patterns in the EU-27 from 2000 to 2020, covering the period before and the onset of the Great Recession. We find that average material consumption in Europe decreased and has since stagnated, although this trend is uneven, with growing underlying inequalities, as measured using the Theil index of metabolic rates. The patterns in construction materials especially shape overall resource use trajectories. The role of infrastructure and services provisioning, especially where these are fossil-fueled, emerges as key in understanding these patterns. Geographic groupings of EU member states—Northern, Eastern, Mediterranean, and Central—further explain the inequalities that deepened following the recession. These emerging disparities raise important questions about what underpins the European project in a Union in which growth or sustained wealth in some member states systematically coincides with what can only be described as collapse elsewhere.

中文翻译：

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不平等加剧：欧盟大衰退的物质视角


2007/8 年的经济危机和全球大衰退导致了广泛的动荡和不稳定。在欧洲，人均资源使用量的空前减少是危机驱动的，而不是深思熟虑的政策的结果。本研究考察了 2000 年至 2020 年欧盟 27 国的材料使用模式，涵盖大衰退之前和开始的时期。我们发现欧洲的平均材料消耗量下降并停滞不前，尽管这种趋势并不均衡，而且使用代谢率的泰尔指数衡量，潜在的不平等越来越大。建筑材料的模式尤其影响着整体资源使用轨迹。基础设施和服务供应的作用，尤其是在这些是化石燃料的情况下，成为理解这些模式的关键。欧盟成员国的地理分组——北部、东部、地中海和中部——进一步解释了经济衰退后加深的不平等。这些新出现的差距提出了一些重要的问题，即在一些成员国的增长或持续财富系统性地与其他地方只能被描述为崩溃的欧盟中，是什么支撑着欧洲项目。