PUBLICATIONS

Adult social care across the OECD is in crisis. Covid-19 has exposed deep fragilities. Principal amongst these is the process of marketisation and financialisation of the social care sector. In this paper, we take a critical perspective on this process. We find that marketisation has facilitated the conditions for both financial fragility and operational failure; and argue that post-pandemic recovery represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul these conditions and transform adult social care.

The Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community consists of individuals each personally dedicated to reducing consumption, so as to build up financial surpluses that are eventually adequate to live off. Using semi-structured interviews with leading FIRE advocates and analysis of books and blog content, this paper assesses the ambivalent moral economy of FIRE.

The TranSim modelling work shows that the negative effects associated with the transition—recession, stagnation, stagflation, increasing inequality and asset stranding—are positively related to the capital intensity of green energy production and reductions in EROI. Policy makers should pay close attention to the overall EROI of the entire energy system when determining energy policy. If significant reductions in EROI are unavoidable, then policy could be used to mitigate some of its negative economic effects.

Labour productivity is a key concept for understanding the way modern economies use resources and features prominently in ecological economics. Ecological economists have questioned the desirability of labour productivity growth on both environmental and social grounds. In this paper we aim to contribute to ongoing debates by focusing on the link between labour productivity and worker wellbeing.

This paper proposes a new, integrative typology of actors involved in climate change mitigation policy in the United Kingdom (UK) and a method for mapping these actors and selecting their typological descriptors onto a 2D space.

This working paper summarises the initial findings of a project whose aim has been to develop an agent-based (AB), stock-flow-consistent (SFC) macroeconomic framework to study the economic, financial and social implications of the transition to a net zero carbon economy.

Mainstream environmental politics has become a largely technical, problem-solving matter of realising concrete targets—environmental politics scholarship seems to have followed suit. This article contends a solely target-driven discourse loses sight of two vital dimensions of environmental politics: radical imagination and ideology critique.

Our research in Woking commenced with an in-depth case study of the town, comprising desk-based research and interviews with representatives of a variety of local organisations community groups, charities, and the local council. Our aim was to gain a clearer historically and contextually based understanding of the town, and to help in identifying the key issues which impact on local people.

Our research in Hay-on-Wye commenced with an in-depth case study of the town, comprising desk-based research and interviews with representatives of a variety of local organisations community groups, charities, and the local council. Our aim was to gain a clearer historically and contextually based understanding of the town, and to help in identifying the key issues which impact on local people.

Planetary health sees neoliberal capitalism as a key mediator of socioecological crises, a position that is echoed in much COVID-19 commentary. In his essay for The Lancet Planetary Health, Simon Mair sets out an economic theory that emphasises some of the ways in which neoliberal capitalism’s conceptualisation of value has mediated responses to COVID-19.

A new, significantly revised second edition of Bronwyn Hayward’s acclaimed book Children Citizenship and Environment is out now. Our CUSP co-investigator from Canterbury University NZ and colleagues examine how students, with teachers, parents, and other activists, can learn to take effective action to confront the complex drivers of the current climate crisis, including: economic and social injustice, colonialism and racism.

Can Nature Writing be a force for saving what we wish to conserve and carry on loving, and to hand on to future generations? Can it be a contribution to the political and social movements for a re-imagination of the good life, of sustainable prosperity? This is an online collection of previously unpublished authors on nature, ecological challenges, and connections between people and places.

This journal paper provides a comparative analysis of young people’s experiences with local transport and green space in seven diverse urban communities (Christchurch, New Zealand; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lambeth/London, UK; Makhanda, South Africa; New Delhi, India; São Paulo, Brazil; and Yokohama, Japan)—as part of the CYCLES study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused dramatic and unprecedented impacts on both global health and economies. Many governments are now proposing recovery packages to get back to normal, but the 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment indicated that business as usual has created widespread ecosystem degradation. Therefore, a post-COVID world needs to tackle the economic drivers that create ecological disruptions.

Current global changes require new business approaches driving sustainable development on all fronts. To date, most business approaches have focused on sustainable marketing and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In this field study, we examine IKEA’s Live Lagom project.

Skills deficit needs to be urgently tackled to get to net zero. In its briefing with CUSP, Upskilling the UK workforce for the 21st century, the Aldersgate Group calls for urgent action to plug the deficit in skills that currently undermines the growth of low carbon supply chains across the UK economy.

Recent attempts by local governments to engage in participatory policy-making hint at a willingness for a more democratically inclusive approach to policy. However, there is often a gap between the rhetoric of citizen engagement and the actual implementation of these policy-making initiatives.

Following extensive cross-industry and civil society engagement, our partners at the Aldersgate Group published a new report, setting out some of the key policy decisions that need to be taken in this parliamentary term to put the UK on a credible pathway to building a competitive, net zero emissions economy.

The transition to net-zero cannot be sustainable if it creates or exacerbates social inequalities. In a new COP26-Universities-Network briefing, the authors—including CUSP co-investigator Dr Marit Hammond—emphasise that the impacts of climate change and the policy measures implemented to mitigate them, vary greatly depending on place, time and social contexts; and identify a number of tools for policymakers to meet targets whilst also upholding social justice.

New edited collection by CUSP investigator Kate Oakley and Mark Banks, critiquing the current model of the creative economy and considering sustainable alternatives; exploring the complex interactions between cultural prosperity, employment quality and leisure; and showcasing interdisciplinary and international perspectives on creative economy assessment.

This book by CUSP co-investigator Will Davies takes stock of a historical moment that no longer recognises itself. Davies tells the story of the apparently chaotic and irrational events, and extracts their underlying logic and long-term causes. What we are seeing are the effects of the 2008 financial crash, the failure of the British neoliberal project, the dying of Empire, and the impact of the changes that technology and communications have had on the idea of the public sphere as well as the power of information.

This paper draws on the insights from an exploration of Instagram posts tagged #goodlife to consider the role of Instagram in the constitution of good life narratives that are available to young people. Using network analysis tools, the researchers analyse the relationships between themes of hashtags appearing on 793 posts tagged #goodlife.

Well-known academic and non-academic institutions call for a new approach in economics able to capture features of modern economies including, but not limited to, complexity, non-equilibrium and uncertainty. In this paper, we provide a systematic review of ecological macroeconomic models that are suitable for the investigation of low-carbon energy transitions and assess them based on the features considered desirable for a new approach in economics.

Materialism is associated with a broad range of negative outcomes for individuals, societies, and the planet. This study demonstrates that encouraging and activating self-transcendence values and intrinsic goals is an effective strategy to c materialistic goal orientation.

This paper presents a stock-flow consistent (SFC) macroeconomic simulation model for Canada. Contrary to the widely accepted view, the results suggest that ‘green growth’ (in the Carbon Reduction Scenario) may be slower than ‘brown growth’. More importantly, we show (in the Sustainable Prosperity Scenario) that improved environmental and social outcomes are possible even as the growth rate declines to zero.

The need to locate ways of living that can be both beneficial to personal well-being and ecologically sustainable is becoming increasingly important. Flow experiences show promise for the achievement of personal and ecological well-being. However, it is not yet understood how the materialistic values promoted by our consumer cultures may impact our ability to experience flow.

Compiled by academics at three UK universities, this report presents a profile of participants in Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) mass civil disobedience actions in London in April and October 2019. The report is compiled from three datasets: a protest survey of participants in each of these two XR actions; observational analysis of court hearings of XR activists; and data from a previous survey of participants in two climate change marches 2009/10.

Through the APPG on Limits to Growth, MPs across the political spectrum have written to the UK Chancellor, urging him to prioritise wellbeing over GDP growth statistics if his plans to rebuild the economy after Covid-19 are to lead to a green recovery.

Global economic stability could be difficult to recover in the wake of the Covid-19, this Nature article finds. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, many of the world’s leading economies were experiencing larger slower growth cycles (recession cycles), suggesting precisely such a period of critical slowing down in the economic system. This analysis suggests that the added weight of the Covid-19 crisis may result in one of the weakest and most unstable recoveries in recorded history for many economies.

Journal paper in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment on the environmental impact of rearing crickets for live pet food in the UK, and implications of a transition to a hybrid business model combining production for live pet food with production for human consumption.

Contemporary economic and ecological politics frequently revolves around a fundamental problem, of what has been left to us by previous generations, and what we will leave to our successors. This has grave collective, indeed planetary, dimensions where climate change is concerned. However, as economic outcomes are increasingly determined by the power of assets and rents, so capitalist societies are witnessing a revival of dynastic forms of intergenerational advantage and disadvantage, where families and defensive legal instruments (such as trusts) sustain wealth privately.

Journal paper by Christine Corlet Walker, Angela Druckman and Claudio Cattaneo in Social Indicators Research, taking the UK as a case study and asking what views exist among civil servants in the UK about measuring societal well-being.

New book by CUSP researchers Roberto Pasqualino and Aled Jones, presenting a novel stock and flow consistent global impact assessment model (ERRE) designed by the authors to address the financial risks emerging from the interaction between economic growth and environmental limits under the presence of shocks.

This paper presents the results of a thematic coding analysis of a workshop comprised of senior accountants and actuaries who were asked to consider how a future of sustainable prosperity can be enabled by the finance sector. We found that mindset, skills, external drivers and decision boundaries were key themes that create barriers to change.

When it comes to the status of democracy, the current times present a curious chasm: On the one hand, the depoliticisation of contemporary discourses and institutions has led to a legitimacy crisis of democracy; yet on the other, there has been a resurgence of normative democratic ideals and practical ‘democratic innovations’ in the sphere of civil society.

In early Spring this year, written submissions were invited to aid the Committee in prioritising its future programme of work. CUSP director Tim Jackson submitted evidence, making the case for necessary innovations in governance and a realistic and responsible approach to the management of the economy: Sustainable Development Goals and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity cannot be achieved without transformative change, the conditions for which have to be put in place now.