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Reframing Green Prosperity
This seminar will be held in a hybrid format. To join this seminar online, please register through this link: Register Here
Abstract
Global climate and net zero policies are facing are wide array of challenges, from the surge of populist nationalism and re-election of Trump in 2024, to the increase in public and political criticism of the distributional costs of decarbonisation and rise and fall of ‘Green New Deal’ (GND) proposals. Following the decline of GND’s, a broader notion of ‘Green Prosperity’ has begun to take its place, which emphasises how the energy transition can improve economies, communities and individual livelihoods and opportunities. However, this dominant approach fails to question the underlying political economy of new forms of green prosperity. Community Wealth Building (CWB) has emerged as a novel local economic development model that seeks to advance economic democracy worldwide and critically question the political economy of contemporary capitalism. In this presentation, I review CWB, it’s key concepts, approaches and examples, whilst arguing that much more needs to be done to integrate sustainability and just transitions approaches into CWB going forward. Drawing on recent research, I finish by reviewing emerging case studies where CWB overlaps with the green economy and suggest routes forward for policy and research that seeks to embed economy democracy in just transitions.
Biography
Max is a Research Fellow in Just Transitions at SPRU and has a background in energy policy, focussing on energy justice, community energy and how Community Wealth Building (CWB) can feature more in future green economies. He previously won a Leverhulme trust Early Career Research Fellowship (2021 – 2024) on the role of CWB in just transitions, whilst he is currently leading a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers project focusing on how CWB and anchor institutions can support community-led decarbonisation in Canada and the UK.