By Gerry McCartney, Professor of Wellbeing Economy, University of Glasgow

Political commentators debate endlessly how we can get the economy to grow faster. Yet, it is only rarely that we are exposed to a more fundamental question: what is the economy actually for?

At the end of November the University of Glasgow will host the Wealth of Nations 2.0 conference, organised by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and Carnegie UK. This conference is an opportunity to ask that fundamental question, and to hear from Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the other nations which are affiliated to the Wellbeing Economy Governments group.

For decades the accepted wisdom has been that there is no alternative to the current economic design. Other models are said to have failed. Deregulation, privatisation, market solutions and low taxes are all argued to be essential to maintain economic growth and make us all richer, with wealth "trickling down".

But we know this is not working. Poverty is rising. Average life expectancy has stopped improving and is getting worse in our most deprived communities. Democracy is under threat from digitally-induced polarisation and misinformation. Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise inexorably and our planet is now set to breach numerous tipping points which pose existential threats. We face so many concurrent threats that commentators have argued that we now face an unprecedented "polycrisis" – where multiple interacting global crises produce greater harms to the planet and humanity than those crises would produce in isolation.

In the face of all these challenges, there is a rising tide of new economic thinking. Wellbeing economy is a broad term which describes the achievement of "social justice on a healthy planet".

See the full article on The Herald newspaper website

Listen to the Recovering Community podcast episode about the wellbeing economy

 

First published: 11 November 2022

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