Abstract: In 1966, Kennet Boulding wrote an essay entitled “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth”. The metaphor contrasted the limitless cowboy economy – which through the exploitation of nature has led us to accumulate unimaginable wealth and knowledge – with a closed economy where everything is scarce (as in a spaceship). When the environment and the boundaries change, societies have to adapt to guarantee prosperity for all. This adaptation process calls for a change not only in technologies, but also in institutions and worldviews. From this perspective, the growth paradigm ends up being maladaptive to the current context and unsuitable for the challenges of the coming years. This talk will try to discuss some possible socio-economic policies that can contribute to the ecological transition and simultaneously contribute to the development of new institutions and worldviews.