With David Boyle, Ann Pettifor, Andrew Simms, Katherine Trebeck

The existing western economic model seems to be failing and dangerous, contributing to growing inequality, economic and political instability and climate change. At the same time, new economic models are emerging – both in practice, and in a revolution within the field of economics – with new ideas and programmes designed for the economy to thrive within planetary boundaries, be resilient and to share the benefits of more equally. What does this look like in theory and on the ground? What are the challenges these models face? What will it take for a shift to happen before the old model locks into irreversible environmental change, chronic instability and inescapable inequality?

Four political economists look at these questions using examples of new models from the UK and around the world. Writer and policy advisor David Boyle joins author and director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics) Ann Pettifor; author, analyst and campaigner Andrew Simms (co-director with David Boyle of the New Weather Institute) and Katherine Trebeck, Global Research and Policy Adviser for Oxfam’s Research Team.

Speaker biographies:

David Boyle is the author of a range of books about history, social change, politics and the future, including Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes?, The Tyranny of Numbers and Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life. He has been editor of a number of publications including Town & Country Planning, Community Network, New Economics, Liberal Democrat News and Radical Economics. He is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation and co-founder of the New Weather Institute. He was recently the government’s independent reviewer on Barriers to Public Service Choice (2012-2013). Follow him on Twitter @davidboyle1958

Ann Pettifor is the author of Just Money – How Society Can Break the Despotic Power of Finance (2014) and The Coming First World Debt Crisis 2006). She is co-author of The New Green Deal (2008) and editor of the New Economic Foundation’s Real World Economic Outlook – The Legacy of Globalisation: Debt and Deflation. She is director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics)[, a network of economists, and, with Victoria Chick, co-author of PRIME’s analysis of 100 years of UK public debt and its impact, The Economic Consequences of Mr Osborne. Follow her on Twitter @AnnPettifor

Andrew Simms (pictured) is an author, analyst and campaigner. His books include Ecological Debt, The New Economics, Tescopoly and Cancel the Apocalypse: the New Path to Prosperity. He is the chief analyst on the environment at Global Witness and is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation (NEF). He was NEF’s policy director for over a decade, founding its work programme on climate change, energy and interdependence. The Independent listed him as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists and London’s Evening Standard included him in the Power 1000 as one of the capital’s most influential people. He co-founded the New Weather Institute and the climate campaign onehundredmonths.org Follow him on Twitter @AndrewSimms_UK

Katherine Trebeck is Global Research and Policy Adviser for Oxfam’s Research Team. Before this role, she was Policy and Advocacy Manager for Oxfam’s UK Programme, and prior to this she led research and policy for Oxfam’s Scotland office where she developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index, a measure of Scotland’s real prosperity developed through wide ranging community consultation. She also managed Oxfam’s ‘Whose Economy?’ project. From 2005 to 2008 she was a Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of the West of Scotland, Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, and was part of the GIZ Global Leadership Academy’s New Economic Paradigm project. She was a Commissioner on the Fairer Fife Commission, and sits on WWF Scotland’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Task Force and the Board of Ethical Scotland. Follow her on Twitter @KTrebeck

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