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Tag: Bianca Stumbitz

  • Pathways to good work in challenging times—lessons from the community business sector | Blog by Ian Vickers
    Bianca Stumbitz | Fergus Lyon | Ian Vickers

    Pathways to good work in challenging times—lessons from the community business sector | Blog by Ian Vickers

  • How can community businesses keep up the ‘good work’ beyond COVID-19? | Blog
    Bianca Stumbitz | Fergus Lyon | Ian Vickers

    How can community businesses keep up the ‘good work’ beyond COVID-19? | Blog

About

The Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) is a cutting-edge research organisation core-funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and the Laudes Foundation. It takes the form of a rich international network, drawing together expert partners from academic and non-academic institutions as co-producers of the work programme. The overall research question is: What can prosperity possibly mean in a world of environmental, social and economic limits?—We work with people, policy and business to address this question, developing pragmatic steps towards a shared and lasting prosperity.

Contact

Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
University of Surrey
Guildford GU2 7XH

Email: info@cusp.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 1483 684316

 

Newsletter

A list of past newsletters can be found on the publications page. For future editions, please subscribe via Sender.net.

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🌿 GREEN HEALING: Can Nature Improve Health—an
🌿 GREEN HEALING: Can Nature Improve Health—and the Planet?⁠
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The healthcare sector contributes significantly to environmental harm. But what if treatment could help both people and the planet?⁠
A new article by CUSP researcher Amy Isham et al explores ecotherapy—nature-based interventions that reconnect people with the environment, offering proven mental and physical health benefits.⁠
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Research shows ecotherapy can ease depression and anxiety, build social cohesion, and nurture pro-environmental mindsets. But to reach its potential, we need wider access, cultural shifts, and trained practitioners.⁠
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📄 Read: Green healing: Ecotherapy as a transformative model of health and social care⁠
🔗 Link in bio | cusp.ac.uk⁠
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cc #Ecotherapy #GreenHealing #NatureBasedCare #ClimateHealth #WellbeingEconomy #PlanetaryHealth #SustainableHealthcare #MentalHealth #NatureAsMedicine #PublicHealth #SocialCare #GreenCare #EnvironmentalJustice #CareEconomy #TheCareEconomy⁠
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Image: courtesy of Tim Foster/Unsplash (modified)


PLACE, A SENSE OF TASTE; or, Why People Like Darts
PLACE, A SENSE OF TASTE; or, Why People Like Darts in Stoke-on-Trent⁠
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As part of his PhD with us, Dr Mark Ball spent over a year playing in a local darts league—not just for sport, but as a way to explore culture, place, and politics from within.⁠
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This immersive, ethnographic approach sheds light on how everyday leisure is shaped by local identity, social class, and belonging. The result is a thoughtful reflection on how something as ordinary as darts can reveal deeper currents in society.⁠
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🔗 Link in bio | cusp.ac.uk⁠/publications⁠
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#Ethnography #CulturalPolitics #PlaceBasedResearch #Darts #StokeOnTrent #DartsLeague #SocialResearch #EverydayPolitics #PostGrowth #ResearchInTheField #ParticipantObservation #LeisureStudies #Belonging #ClassAndCulture #WellbeingEconomy ⁠


Rates of anxiety disorders have increased sharply
Rates of anxiety disorders have increased sharply in the 21st century, sparking debate about their causes. Yet sociology, despite its long-standing interest in mental distress, has said little about this particular “epidemic.”⁠
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By contrast, the rise of depression and antidepressants in the 1980s has often been understood as a neoliberal condition—one shaped by broader social and economic forces. Anxiety, however, is frequently blurred into this story, treated as if it were the same.⁠
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This article argues for taking anxiety seriously as a distinct social phenomenon. It traces how anxiety was once understood through existentialist and psychoanalytic thought, and how these perspectives were later marginalised by medicalised psychiatry. Finally, it explores whether new sociological approaches—particularly the sociology of assets and assetisation — might help explain the current landscape of anxiety.⁠
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📖 Full paper via cusp.ac.uk⁠/publications⁠
🔗 Link in bio⁠
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—⁠
cc #anxiety #sociology #mentalhealth #neoliberalism #criticaltheory #psychoanalysis #existentialism #assetization #socialchange #publicsociology #careeconomy ⁠
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Image: (CC-BY-ND 2.0) courtesy of Franck Vervial / Flickr


"In much of [our] talking, thinking is half murder
"In much of [our] talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, tat in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly."—Kahlil Gibran, 1923⁠
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#QuoteOfTheDay #KahlilGibran #OnTalking #TheProphet #Wisdom #CriticalThinking #Mindfulness #PhilosophicalQuotes #IntellectualHistory


🎙️Corporate Bodies: New podcast series about
🎙️Corporate Bodies: New podcast series about the strange world of #work.⁠
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Episode 3—Creating the Body | What happens when you accept an employment contract? What are the unspoken and unexamined things that happen when a new person is recruited into an organisation? In this third episode of Corporate Bodies, Mark Walton and Kate Swade explore the feudal history of employment contracting, and how that plays out in working cultures today. ⁠
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Full episode via ➡️ cusp.ac.uk or wherever you get your podcasts from (🔝 or follow link in bio).⁠
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A B O U T⁠
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Kate and Mark are joined by @liambarringtonbush, the founder of @radHRorg, to explore the challenges and dangers of not looking closely enough at how we welcome new people into companies. In a wide ranging conversation, they cover the problems with traditional recruitment processes, the optimum size of organisations, and the “exponential complexity” of bringing new people into a team.⁠
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They talk about the impact of practices from social movement spaces becoming more mainstream, and it’s important to consider power when thinking about new ways of working. The conversation includes some practical steps organisations can take today as well as some larger and more challenging provocations. ⁠
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cc #CorporateBodiesPodcast #WorkplaceCulture #Podcast #OrganisationalDevelopment #NewPodcast #NewEconomics #SustainableBusiness #AlternativeBusiness #SocialEnterprise #SocEnt #wellbeingeconomy #TheCareEconomy @wellbeingeconomyalliance @sharedassets⁠
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Corporate Bodies is a production by Mark Walton and Kate Swade, edited by @_katierevell. Artwork by @hanorbb. Supported by @CUSP_uk.⁠


New research from Oxford and CUSP analysed 14,000+
New research from Oxford and CUSP analysed 14,000+ care homes across England—and found a clear pattern: for-profit homes deliver better care when more residents pay privately.⁠
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In contrast, public and not-for-profit homes offer more consistent quality regardless of how care is funded—often outperforming for-profits when no self-funders are present.⁠
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These findings raise serious equity concerns. If quality depends on ability to pay, then wealthier areas may be getting better care—deepening inequalities in the social care system.⁠
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📄 Full study via cusp.ac.uk⁠
🔗 Link in bio⁠
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cc #SocialCare #CareInequality #HealthEquity #AdultSocialCare #CareHomes #ResidentialCare #Inequality #PublicPolicy #CarelessEconomy #CareEconomy #SustainableWelfare #WelfareJustice⁠
#SocialPolicy #PublicHealthResearch


“We’ve built an economy that profits from maki
“We’ve built an economy that profits from making us sick—and calls it progress.” ⁠
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In this episode of Cities 1.5, economist and author @ProfTimJackson joins former Mayor of Toronto, David Miller, to challenge the foundations of our growth-obsessed system. ⁠
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He asks:⁠
→ What if prosperity meant balance, not more?⁠
→ What if care—not consumption—defined economic success?⁠
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Drawing from his new book #TheCareEconomy, Tim explains how we’ve normalised chronic illness, environmental degradation, war and inequality by prioritising GDP over wellbeing. He shares a bold vision of an economy rooted in health, care, and human dignity—and how cities can lead this shift.⁠
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🧠 “Health is balance. Care is the attention we give to restore that balance. Capitalism disrupts that—because care takes time.”⁠
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🎧 The full podcast is available via the University of Toronto Press website, and can be found on the usual podcast platforms.⁠
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🔗 Link in bio.⁠
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cc #CareEconomy #PostGrowth #WellbeingEconomy #ProsperityWithoutGrowth #LifeAfterCapitalism #Degrowth #BeyondGrowth #PostWachstum #ÖkonomieDerFürsorge #WohlstandOhneWachstum #Postcroissance #Decroissance #decrecimiento #HealthEconomics #Medicalisation #OverMedicalisation #Financialisation #Naturopathy #healingpowerofnature #Care #Cure #PhilosophyOfCare #RethinkingProsperity @sociologysurrey HT @utpress ⁠
@c40cities cc @wellbeingeconomyalliance @politybooks ⁠@oekomverlag⁠ @ffc_commission⁠


“Care is the foundation for life itself. But in
“Care is the foundation for life itself. But in the market, it’s treated as a second-class citizen.”⁠
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In his new book »The Care Economy« CUSP director and renowned ecological economist @ProfTimJackson offers a timely and deeply personal manifesto for a more humane future—one where care is central, not sidelined. From the rising burden of chronic disease to the gender politics of care, this book confronts the structural violence baked into our pursuit of growth at all costs.⁠
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💡 What if we designed our economy to heal—not harm?⁠
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Irreverent, insightful, and boldly hopeful, #TheCareEconomy is now available in the US and globally.⁠
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Further details and discount code for the English edition via ➡️ the-care-economy.com⁠
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🔗 Link in bio⁠
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cc #PostGrowth #ProsperityWithoutGrowth #HumanRights #BeyondGrowth #Degrowth #ÖkonomieDerFürsorge #WellbeingEconomy #CareEconomy⁠
#Postwachstum #PostCroissance #Omgroei #PostCrecimiento #LifeAfterCapitalism #Decroissance #Decrecimiento #SystemChange #BigFood #BigPharma #HolisticMedicine #EcologicalEconomics #RethinkingEconomics #NewEconomics #GrowthDependency #RethinkingProsperity #PostConsumerism #DoughnutEconomics #SustainableWelfare cc @politybooks @wellbeingeconomyalliance @sociologysurrey @institutesustainability


"Totalitarian politics … use and abuse their own
"Totalitarian politics ... use and abuse their own ideological and political elements until the basis of factual reality, from which the ideologies originally derived their strength and their propaganda value ... have all but disappeared."—Hannah Arendt, 1967⁠
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#QuoteOfTheDay #HannahArendt #CriticalThinking #Totalitarianism #TheOriginsOfTotalitarianism #TheLifeOfTheMind #BanalityOfEvil #MenInDarkTimes #Wisdom #Reflection #HumanCivilisation #Humanity #HumanRights #Politics #Peace #Futures


Parliamentary Work

APPG Logo
CUSP is acting as the secretariat for the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Limits to Growth. The APPG provides a platform for cross-party dialogue and collaboration on shared and lasting prosperity in a world of environmental, social and economic limits. It aims to contribute to a growing international debate on redefining prosperity and developing new measures of progress. The APPG is chaired by Caroline Lucas MP and Clive Lewis MP, and its membership is drawn from both Houses and all main political parties.

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