Abstract
It's hard to escape the feeling that in Britain today nothing works. Economic growth and higher wages are simply not enough. This is because the so-called "cost of living crisis" is only the face of a deeper crisis of foundational liveability.
How can we address failing public services and decaying social infrastructure? What is the foundational economy and how do we rebuild it? What is the role of cultural infrastructure in this process?
On this lunchtime panel, Julie Froude (Manchester) and Sukhdev Johal (QMUL), members of the Foundational Economy Collective and two co-authors of When Nothing Works (2023), will discuss these questions alongside Justin O'Connor (South Australia), author of Culture of is Not Industry (2024).
This event is hosted by the Thinking Through Infrastructure Network. For updates on forthcoming events please follow @TTinfraNetwork or join the mail list by writing to dominic.davies@city.ac.uk. See below for more information about the network.
About the speakers
Julie Froude is Professor of Financial Innovation at Manchester Business School and a member of the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) at the University of Manchester. She has been involved for the last ten years in studying the foundational economy in the UK, researching the essential but often overlooked parts of the economy such as food, transport, and housing.
Her co-authored books include When Nothing Works: From Cost of Living to Foundational Liveability (2023),The End of the Experiment? From Competition to the Foundational Economy (2014), and Financialization and Strategy: Narrative and Numbers (2006).
Sukhdev Johal is Professor of Accounting and Strategy at Queen Mary University of London. His research interests include critical research on UK finance, how to adapt social and economic statistics to understand employment and wealth changes in the UK, and how local authorities can promote economic democracy and local supply chains. He also has a long-standing interest in financialization and its impact on business models.
He is a long-time collaborator with Manchester's CRESC research team. His co-authored books include When Nothing Works (2023), After the Great Complacence (2011), Financialization at Work (2008), and Financialization and Strategy(2006).
Justin O’Connor is Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of South Australia and a Visiting Professor at the School of Cultural Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University. Between 2012-18 he was a member of the UNESCO ‘Expert Facility’ and has advised cities in Australia, Europe, Russia, Korea, Vietnam and China.
He is currently working with the Reset Collective. He is the co-editor of several volumes including most recently Different Histories, Shared Futures: Dialogues on China and Australia (2022). He is the co-author of Red Creative: Culture and Modernity in China (2020) and the author of Culture Is Not An Industry (2024). More information is available at https://justin-oconnor.com.
Thinking Through Infrastructure Network
Infrastructure bears the weight of the past and orients the future. The “Thinking Through Infrastructure Network” (TTiN) is a platform for academics, policy makers, and community organisers who work through infrastructure to confront the problems and possibilities of the present.
From housing and transport to sanitation and energy systems, TTiN understands infrastructure as the foundational materials that allow people to live rich and full lives, and that conversely cut lives short when they fail or breakdown.
Though engaged with technical and economic heuristics, TTiN foregrounds the political, cultural, imaginative, and emotional impact of infrastructure on people’s lived experience. Participants think about infrastructure, but they also think through infrastructure to address pressing social justice questions.
TTiN values methods from the arts and humanities alongside the social sciences, and it creates space for specialists and non-specialists to reimagine together what infrastructure is, how it operates, and who it serves.
TTiN is comprised of online and in person events, as well as “Working With Infrastructure” sessions that include creative and practical elements. All are free to attend. For news of forthcoming activities please follow @TTinfraNetwork or join the mail list by writing to dominic.davies@city.ac.uk.
Attendance at City St George's events is subject to our terms and conditions.