Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century
Concepts, models and metrics
Edited by Henrietta L. Moore, Matthew Davies, Nikolay Mintchev, and Saffron Woodcraft
Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century sets out a new vision for prosperity in the twenty-first century and how it can be achieved for all.
The volume challenges orthodox understandings of economic models, but goes beyond contemporary debates to show how social innovation drives economic value. Drawing on substantive research in the UK, Lebanon and Kenya, it develops new concepts, frameworks, models and metrics for prosperity across a wide range of contexts, emphasising commonalities and differences. Its distinctive approach goes beyond defining and measuring prosperity – addressing the debate about the failures of GDP – to formulating and describing what is needed to make prosperity a realisable proposition for specific people living in specific locales.
Departing from general propositions about post-growth to delineate pathways to prosperity, the volume emphasises that visions of the good life are diverse and require empirical work co-designed with local communities and stakeholders to drive change. It is essential reading for policymakers who are stuck, local government officers who need new tools, activists who wonder what is next, academics in need of refreshment, and students and people of all ages who want a way forward.
Praise for Prosperity in the Twenty-First Century
‘A timely collection of thoughtful essays, addressing one of the most vital questions of our time. From London to the Lebanon and beyond, Moore and her team ask what prosperity can possibly mean – not in the abstract, but as lived experience – within the finite limits of planet Earth.’
Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth
‘This is an important and powerful account of how public policy formulation should be reconceived to promote shared prosperity beyond conventional economic performance. It demonstrates that this approach can be applied in an array of localities facing very different challenges from London to Kenya and Lebanon. It is of profound significance for policymakers and practitioners around the world.'
Colin Mayer, University of Oxford
‘This is a book for our time. It comes at a moment of protracted global recession and environmental crisis, and a broadening recognition that conventional economic instruments are failing to protect people and our planet. It offers authoritative analysis, transformative pathways and reason to hope. Above all, it shows how prosperity, differently understood, resides in the people who live it.'
Jo Beall, London School of Economics and Political Science
Matthew Davies is Deputy Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge
List of figures
List of tables
Notes on contributors
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: prosperity in the twenty-first century
Henrietta. L. Moore
1 What is prosperity?
Henrietta L. Moore and Nikolay Mintchev
2 The discourse of prosperity: metaphors, transformations and pathways
Nikolay Mintchev and Henrietta L. Moore
3 Local meanings and ‘sticky’ measures of the good life: redefining prosperity with and for communities in east London
Henrietta L. Moore and Saffron Woodcraft
4 Rethinking livelihood security: why addressing the democratic deficit in economic policy making opens up new pathways to prosperity
Saffron Woodcraft, Hannah Collins and Iona McArdle
5 Building co-designed infrastructures in Lebanon’s spaces of displacement
Hanna Baumann, Joana Dabaj, Nikolay Mintchev, Henrietta L. Moore and Andrea Rigon
6 Decentralised renewable energy: A pathway to prosperity for Lebanon?
Henrietta L. Moore, Hannah Collins and Diala Makki
7 Prosperity in crisis in the longue durée in Africa
Henrietta L. Moore
8 Emergent prosperity, time and design: Farming in Marakwet, Kenya
Matthew Davies, Samuel Lunn- Rockliffe, Timothy Kipkeu Kiprutto and Wilson Kipkore
Epilogue
Henrietta L. Moore
Index
‘This is a book for our time. It comes at a moment of protracted global recession and environmental crisis, and a broadening recognition that conventional economic instruments are failing to protect people and our planet. It offers authoritative analysis, transformative pathways and reason to hope. Above all, it shows how prosperity, differently understood, resides in the people who live it.'
Jo Beall, London School of Economics and Political Science
‘This is an important and powerful account of how public policy formulation should be reconceived to promote shared prosperity beyond conventional economic performance. It demonstrates that this approach can be applied in an array of localities facing very different challenges from London to Kenya and Lebanon. It is of profound significance for policymakers and practitioners around the world.'
Colin Mayer, University of Oxford
‘A timely collection of thoughtful essays, addressing one of the most vital questions of our time. From London to the Lebanon and beyond, Moore and her team ask what prosperity can possibly mean – not in the abstract, but as lived experience – within the finite limits of planet Earth.’
Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth
Format: Open Access PDF
250 Pages
33 colour illustrations
Copyright: © 2023
ISBN: 9781800084452
Publication: June 22, 2023
Series: Global Prosperity in Thought and Practice
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