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This post introduces A New Economic Grammar from the Inner Areas, the first working paper of the Londa School of Economics, rethinking economics from rural and marginalised places beyond global financial centres. It sets out a vision based on care, shared prosperity, and ecological regeneration in response to climate breakdown and inequality.
This blog discusses a recent paper by Amy Burnett, Jason Leman and Daniel Ozarow on how town and parish councils could play a central role in making devolution work for communities. The paper responds to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill and explores how neighbourhood governance could reshape democracy for town and parish councils.
Has economic growth really been decoupled from climate damage? In this blog, Simon Mair examines recent claims from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit that growth and emissions are no longer linked, arguing that while decoupling is real, it is happening far too slowly to avert catastrophic climate change.
To accompany the launch of the latest report by the UK’s Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, Prof Tim Jackson explores the hidden costs of our national diet, asking who truly bears the price of a booming fast-food industry and what it means for our health, communities, and environment.
Why are organisations so weird? And what could we do to make them better? Mark Walton and Kate Swade have been exploring just this through their CUSP-supported podcast project, Corporate Bodies.
This is an amended version of Tim Jackson’s Foreword for Richard McNeill Douglas’ new book The Meaning of Growth—Anti-Environmentalist Rhetoric and the Defence of Modernity. Tim situates Richard’s book in a longstanding quest for meaning as a central dimension of prosperity.
The UK food system faces rising health and environmental costs. Evidence from the TUKFS Programme outlines systemic changes for a sustainable future. In this blog, CUSP deputy director Fergus Lyon summarises key findings.
How do young people think about sustainability and how does this shape their consumption decisions? These questions underpin new exploratory research by Brand Legacy in collaboration with CUSP researchers Anastasia Loukianov and Kate Burningham.
What we are lacking is an inspiring vision of our lives, collective futures, and spiritual reality in a world in which we cannot keep growing forever. As much as we need policy wonks, scientists, and campaigners, Richard Douglas argues in this blog, now is the time for philosophers, religious thinkers and writers to apply themselves to social change.
What is economic growth really measuring? It’s not just numbers – it’s speed and acceleration. Using the metaphor of economies as cars on a racetrack, Smith Mordak explores how even small growth rates can widen global inequality – and why rethinking the pace and rules of growth is more urgent than ever.
“Ask not what we can do for our health. Ask only what our healthcare can do for growth.” In this searing critique, Tim Jackson exposes how the UK Government’s new 10-year-plan for NHS England trades public health for private profit, betraying Nye Bevan’s founding vision for the National Health Service in the name of growth.
A recent accelerator event showcased how universities can support nature-positive startups by connecting them with investors and bridging critical gaps in the green innovation ecosystem. In recognition of World Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (MSME) Day 2025, this blog summarises the project and key learnings.
In this blog, Joanna Masangkay reflects on the Green Horizons Symposium, a two-day event that convened researchers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners to explore current challenges and opportunities in sustainability.
In this blog, Andrew Jackson summarises a recent paper co-authored with Tim Jackson exploring the economic effects of different energy transition pathways, offering fresh insight into the challenges and trade-offs of reaching net zero.
No political mantra, no tech-bro fantasy, no alluring macroeconomic ideology has stemmed the persistent decline of economic growth. Let alone reversed it. To all intents and purposes, Tim Jackson writes, we are already living in a postgrowth world.
Isolate growth from public good and you are simply planning for breakdown. Building on CUSP research, Rowan Williams argues that a resilient society should be rooted in wellbeing, not wealth.
Ecological economist Arthur Lauer reflects on interviews with CUSP researchers, exploring how academic backgrounds shape future visions, the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration, and the difficulty—but necessity—of imagining positive change.
A eulogy for Roger Coward MA, Film Maker, Teacher, Psychotherapist, Author, Musician—and PhD Student with CUSP. As read at his funeral in Abbeycwmhir on 11th February 2025 by Prof Tim Jackson, CUSP co-Director.
How can publicly funded research foster a sustainable and fairer food system? A study by CUSP and Sussex University, part of the UKRI-funded Transforming UK Food Systems programme, examines how social innovation can address diet-related ill-health and environmental challenges.
A profile of Tim Jackson, exploring his recent work and the challenges he’s tackling in the postgrowth field, written by Nick Romeo for the US magazine The New Republic. The piece is based on in-depth conversations and time Romeo spent accompanying Tim.
Advancing degrowth in Ireland requires an understanding of, and a reckoning with, the economic legacy of its colonised past, CUSP researcher Seán Fearon writes. A post-colonial economy within planetary boundaries must break with relationships of dependency and structures of unsustainability.
In recognition of World Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprise Day on June 27th, this blog discusses the necessity for increased support and investment to help smaller businesses identify, measure, and showcase nature-positive investments, and examines the roles of investors, business intermediaries, and researchers in facilitating this process.
Simon Mair reflects on the commodification of life itself through advertising that is focused on consumerism and economic growth. He explores sustainable alternatives and real-world examples of reclaiming advertising spaces for community and ecological wellbeing instead.
This blog highlights the transformative potential of organisational democracy in social enterprises, addressing challenges of participation and governance while advocating for diverse ownership structures to promote social equity and sustainable economic practices.
By examining sustainable fashion through the kaleidoscope of interdisciplinary perspectives, a recent project on the subject gained a dynamic and multifaceted view of a potential future. CUSP deputy director Fergus Lyon lays down a snapshot.
In his guest blog for CUSP, Daniel Wortel-London, a US Federal policy specialist at CASSE, argues that translating sustainability policies into legislative drafts can enhance our research, boost persuasiveness, and facilitate implementation.
This blog examines challenges and benefits experienced by our social enterprise partners in our transdisciplinary research project on sustainable food systems.
What the economic debate on Irish reunification needs most is a healthy dose of scientific reality, and an acknowledgement of ecological limits, CUSP research fellow Seán Fearon writes in his comment piece for The Irish News.
In this blog, members of the Middlesex University SME Nature Positive Finance project outline how finance for SMEs can play a role in encouraging business sustainability and emphasise the need for a specific government strategy for supporting SME nature positive investment.
Transitioning the economy from ‘business as usual’ to prioritising societal wellbeing is imperative amidst the climate emergency. A growing movement of purpose-driven business seeks meaningful change, but it needs strong support from advisors and educators to be taken seriously and offer a genuine sustainable alternative.
Conducting research that integrates and broadens insights and approaches from multiple perspectives is essential for tackling the complexities of system change. In the inaugural blog of our new series, Kate Burningham reflects on some practical implications of transdisciplinarity for academic work practices.
The the last edition of her blog series on Collecting Real Utopias, Malaika Cunningham draws together some of the themes and projects she has written about in this series and witnessed during her time as practice-based researcher in residence at Artsadmin.
The Global Tipping Points Report, launched at #COP28, urges immediate action to address Earth system tipping points. It also outlines strategies for positive tipping points in human domains, citing Norway’s shift to electric vehicles as an illustrative transformative journey toward widespread change for a more sustainable future.
Rishi Sunak has rolled back the UK’s net zero policies and ripped up decades of cross-party consensus on climate change, Tim Jackson writes. “Perhaps consensus is a commodity yet more fragile than consciousness. But its disappearance carries a tragic sense of political and social loss.”
Following the 9th International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb, CUSP researchers Patrick Elf, Simon Mair, and their colleague James Scott Vandeventer reflect on the imperative for the degrowth movement to embrace uncomfortable challenges in engaging with business, management, and organizations to advance to the next level.
In this blog, CUSP researcher Dr Amy Isham examines the ways in which advertising moulds our values towards materialism and the consequences this has for us, our children and the planet. (This blog first appeared on the Adfree Cities website, as part of the Bad Publicity series.)