Skip to main content

Building a new social commons

Date
Date
Wednesday 28 February 2018, 16.00-17.15
Venue
School of Earth and Environment seminar rooms 8.119
Presenter
Anna Coote, New Economics Foundation
Event
SRI sustainability seminar

Abstract

The Brundtland Report, which has its 30th anniversary this year, defines sustainable development as meeting ‘the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. But what resources that are needed to meet those needs?  Can they be claimed and controlled by the people who need them?  Drawing on recent work at the New Economics Foundation, Anna Coote considers how these questions relate to the social resources that are essential for every individual to survive and flourish, now and in future.

Biography

Anna Coote is Principal Fellow at the New Economics Foundation. A leading analyst, writer and advocate in the field of social policy, she has written widely on social justice, sustainable development, working time, public health policy, public involvement and democratic dialogue, gender and equality. She was Commissioner for Health with the UK Sustainable Development Commission (2000-9), led the Healthcare Commission’s work on engaging patients and the public (2005-8) and was Director of Health Policy at the King’s Fund (1998-2004). Earlier posts include Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of IPPR (1989-1998), Editor and Producer of current affairs television for Diverse Productions (1982-6), Deputy Editor of the New Statesman (1978-82). Her recent publications include Building a New Social Commons, (NEF 2017) Local Early Action: how to make it happen (NEF 2015), People, Planet Power: Towards a New Social Settlement (NEF, 2015) and Time on our Side: why we all need a shorter working week (NEF 2013).

Directions to the Venue

School of Earth and Environment Seminar Rooms (8.119). At the Earth and Environment Reception take the door on the right-hand side. The Seminar Rooms are immediately on the left. Campus Map