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Gross domestic product remains the predominant measure of progress across the world, it’s time to change that, write Paul Allin, Diane Coyle and Tim Jackson. Amid the global threats posed by climate change, spiralling energy costs, insecure employment and widening inequality, the need to rethink our notion of progress is now an urgent priority.
To honour this season of harvest, of pickling, of ‘putting up’, CUSP researcher Malaika Cunningham is dedicating the eight blog in her series ‘Collecting Real Utopias’ to celebrate and signpost some of activism and art that is happening in the UK around food justice.
Mainstream politics has long proved resistant to the arguments of those who question the pursuit of unending economic growth. CUSP researcher Richard McNeill Douglas suggests a treatment.
ESG, Socially (Ir)responsible ISAs and the Anthropocene. This essay examines a fragmented financial sector and looks to the concepts of Universal Ownership and Systems Change Investing as a foundation for driving truly sustainable investment
Labour leader Keir Starmer has declared the UK Labour party’s priorities to be “growth, growth and growth”. But what if endless economic growth is not only impossible with our current technological armoury, what if it’s also a living nightmare?
Drawing on their new book on the events of 2020-21, CUSP co-investigator Will Davies, Sahil Jai Dutta, Nick Taylor, and Martina Tazzioli offer a critical account of COVID-19 as a political-economic rupture, exposing underlying power struggles and social injustices.
From the slopes of Mount Kenya to the University of Kansas; from the horror of Nazi Germany to the atrocities of the Vietnam War; from ancient Chinese wisdom to the civil disobedience of a Swedish schoolgirl, in his recent book Post Growth, Tim Jackson wanted to draw together a coherent narrative for our time—a different story from the one we have consigned ourselves to.
Very recently, IPCC lead author Prof Julia Steinberger went to give a climate talk at her old high school in Geneva—and—in her own words—was given a masterclass in our failings. This is the story of a day that shook her up.
The interest in a transition beyond the existing parameters of ‘political reality’ means such research faces significant barriers to influencing policymakers. Discussing findings from his recent report, Richard Douglas explores how ideas from the margins can come to shape policies and cross divides.
A recent CEEDR study showcases small enterprises in the UK fashion industry that implement extended circular economy practices with an aim to influence their customers’ consumptive behaviour. This blog introduces some of the details.
‘Lockdown’ has affected people throughout society in very many different ways. Among all the restrictive measures taken during heights of the pandemic, school closure was by far the worst blow for wellbeing across all UK nations, according to new ONS data.
Whatever the UK government says it’s doing—and not doing—one thing is clear, Tim Jackson writes, the “treasured free-market economy” is never going to compensate for our failure to insulate people’s homes against the cold, and the future against the ravages of climate change.
Research has just started to unpick the positive effect dance can have on cognition. But can it also have other positive effects? In this blog, Michela Vecci and colleagues are introducing their latest transdisciplinary research endeavour exploring the role of dance on wellbeing and productivity.
It is a hard time to write about utopias. It feels frivolous in the face of war—indulgent, meaningless. The failure of utopias though is when we hold on too closely to perfection, and believe that there can only be one version of the world.
The Green Stories project in partnership with BAFTA have launched a new competition to create a short video that raises awareness of the role of fictional role models in promoting sustainable lifestyles, and call out those writers, producers and characters that implicitly promote excessive consumption as an aspiration.
Whitehall’s delivery plans need strengthening, CUSP researcher Richard Douglas writes in this blog, summarising the findings of a recent APPG briefing on the UK Government’s new Outcome Delivery Plans.
A blog and film to account for Malaika Cunningham’s and The Bare Project’s residency at Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness—offering the sketched beginnings of the giants they discovered in their time there.
The term ‘social innovation’ has come to thrive in recent years. A new study is looking at the diverse use of the term in scholarship around sustainability action and tackling biodiversity loss.
This is the sixth blog in the ‘Collecting Real Utopias’ series, which aims to collect, connect, and celebrate arts-based real utopian projects from around the world.
CUSP Director Tim Jackson reflects on the life of and work of the late Thich Nhat Hanh and its relevance for contemporary debates about the meaning of prosperity and power.
Climate assemblies are at the peak of the current deliberative wave, CUSP fellow Graham Smith writes, but much more creative work is needed to integrate these bodies into the political system of policy making and policy cycles more effectively.
Co-operatives as an alternative business model to solely commercial firms are a widely known concept, partly through UK supermarket experiences. But, as Kate Oakley summarises her recent project, there’s much more to the practice of co-ops. Her study shows that the political and ethical meaning is what motivates workers and keeps them going in the long term. Institutional support, however, to maintain a co-op structure against mainstream pressure is often inadequate.
An event held as part of the University of Surrey’s Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Festival of Social Sciences (FOSS), focussing on the role of independent politics to cultivate a different, more inclusive, less adversarial and potentially greener politics. Here, Amy Burnett is summarising the discussions.
When we think and talk about innovations needed to address the climate and ecological crises, most people tend to think about technologies such as solar panels or electric vehicles. But other kinds of innovations are equally necessary. This blog, based on a recent podcast, is intended to give some insight into one of these classes of innovation—political innovation.
What role can businesses play in helping to mitigate the global crises across climate, nature and social justice? And what would that mean for their employees, leaders, stakeholders and those that seek to support them? In this blog, Ben Kellard and colleagues are exploring options through the lens of ‘health’.
Professor Mihaly ‘Mike’ Csikszentmihalyi was one of the founders of the positive psychology movement and father of the concept of ‘flow’. His death last month at the age of 87 marks the passing of a rare and visionary scientist. In this blog, Amy Isham and Tim Jackson reflect upon his life and legacy.
This is the fifth blog in the ‘Collecting Real Utopias’ series, which aims to collect, connect, and celebrate arts-based real utopian projects from around the world. It is rooted in Malaika Cunningham’s research, which explores the overlaps between democracy, environmental justice, and participatory arts.
The economic system to which we are in thrall throws us out of balance, Tim Jackson and Julian Sheather write in this blog. By failing to meet our most essential needs it is doomed to immiserate and, ultimately, sicken us. We urgently need to regain a richer, more satisfying understanding of ourselves, and our place in the world.
This is the fourth blog in the ‘Collecting Real Utopias’ series, which aims to collect, connect, and celebrate arts-based real utopian projects from around the world. It is rooted in CUSP research by Dr Malaika Cunningham, which explores the overlaps between democracy, environmental justice, and participatory arts.
Interest in the social and environmental ‘purpose of business’ is growing. Could it be part of a move towards a better kind of economy and what kind of investment is needed? CUSP Fellow Dr Jess Daggers points to the history of the social investment market in the UK as a source of insight into the attempt to combine financial tools and social purpose.
Impact investing is crucial to tackle some of our biggest problems. While we have seen tremendous progress in creating an early-stage impact investing market, there still are some problems that prevent the market from working properly. In this blog, Theresa Harrer & Othmar Lehner discuss insights from their symposium at this year’s Academy of Management Conference, and develop three key problem areas that need to be addressed to make impact investing work for everyone.
The competitive, for-profit model means investor returns have become more important than quality care and worker pay, Christine Corlet Walker writes in her opinion piece for the UK’s The Guardian, summarising the recent CUSP working paper on ‘careless finance’.
The hold of market ideology has weakened over the past few years, Victor Anderson writes in his recent pamphlet where he’s exploring its loosening grip in practice, and what the prospects might be for current ‘progressive’ policy. This blog is summarising some of the arguments.
There is an increasing interest in the circular economy pathway for sustainable development in the Global South. CUSP researcher Adeyemi Adelekan reports from his research that investigates how social enterprise are establishing circular principles in Lagos Nigeria, highlighting how huge of a task it is with a variety of barriers stemming from outdated perceptions and misconceptions about waste.
Now is not the time to abandon spaceship Earth, Tim Jackson writes in his essay for The Conversation UK Insights Series. Let’s dream of some “final frontier” by all means. But let’s focus our minds too on some quintessentially earthly priorities.
Excerpt: The England football team may not have won the country a new trophy, but they have given us something more valuable. Gareth Southgate’s England squad exhibit an ethics of care that is unusual in both football and male-dominated space more generally. This England team has valuable lessons for their fans and English society at large. But to understand how profound this shift was, we must first consider the historical context.