Mathew Lawrence

Bidenomics wasn’t ambitious enough Rapid decarbonisation will require an overhaul of local energy authorities and better macroeconomic planning

following up on my "Beyond Bidenomics" piece from last week, we have @brusselermel.bsky.social in the FT this week making the case for a more serious commitment to economic planning in future progressive economic policy work:

www.ft.com/content/dda5...

Very good @brusselermel.bsky.social - and what timing to publish this call for planning the American economy.
Wonder what the Fed does in that progressive future :)

Beyond Bidenomics | Perspectives On what is living and what is dead in economic policy.

so okay! first piece out from me at Common Wealth

"Beyond Bidenomics: On what is living and what is dead in economic policy"

the argument is that progressives should take credit for the successful parts of the pandemic policy response and build the next Thing

www.common-wealth.org/perspectives...

Haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but looks very promising.

We are so excited that @atwilliams.bsky.social is joining @cmmonwealth.bsky.social! He’s been so instrumental to our thinking and with the rest of EA in driving progressive economic policy from big fiscal to green industrial policy. Next: decommodification, green planning, industrial democracy.

Shell's new strategy is good news for your savings Sky's Ian King writes that while the UK energy firm's climate commitments continue to attract criticism, there is much for savers to welcome in its strategy update.

Let’s be clear that Shell—a company that has prioritised fossil fuel expansion— is driving insecurity in retirement for us all. Not only because of the catastrophic economic & social impacts of climate change…
🧵
news.sky.com/story/shells...

Public compute — state provision of computing resources — could be a powerful tool for reshaping the AI sector.

In our report, Jai Vipra and I offer an overview of existing approaches, and recommendations for avoiding industry capture, reducing environmental harms, and delivering public value

1/5

First issue of The Break Down is on Trump, the new right and the climate, and is now open for pitches (pitching@break-down.org)

Details below!

Write for us!! Full details on our website.

🌟We're recruiting!🌟

We're looking for a Digital Strategy Officer to join our growing team.

If you've got an eye for impactful social media content and are passionate about climate and ecological crisis, we'd love to hear from you!

Deadline: February 26th.

www.common-wealth.org/vacancies/di...

A New Green Democratic Republic for the 21st Century | Briefing | Common Wealth Launching Common Wealth’s US Program.

🗽📑 Common Wealth is launching a new US research & policy program.

Trump has returned to power. The far right is becoming even more cemented in US politics.

🧵 We must build an alternative progressive political project. But what would this look like?

www.common-wealth.org/publications...

Planet vs Property | Perspectives On dismantling fossil capital.

"Progressive forces, disorientated & scattered, groping for programme & popular strategy, appear helpless on the stage of history, lacking the means or strength to effect such an epochal transformation."

@mathewlawrence.bsky.social on imploding fossil capital.
www.common-wealth.org/perspectives...

Great this by @cmmonwealth.bsky.social.

Worth noting that the core idea -- regional economic development is always a palimpsest, w/ one historic layer shaping what comes next/"on top" -- is that which Doreen Massey expounded in book-length form in the magisterial Spatial Divisions of Labor (1984).

Finally digging into this brilliant example of powerful, interactive storytelling rooted in politics, people & place.

My grandparents lived in Worksop - just north of Mansfield - after arriving to the UK from Jamaica. Grandad worked in Manton Colliery (now a truck depot) & Grandma in a factory.

Happy holidays! 🎄

For the festive season, we wanted to share with you what we’re reading this winter at Common Wealth.

🧵

Socialising Nature How we can live together without exploiting each other? This is the work of socialising nature.

Great piece by @cominsitu.bsky.social on @the-breakdown.bsky.social : "any politics of nature that neatly fits within the existing political economic framework without changing the property relations themselves is doomed, in practice, to fail"
www.break-down.org/post/sociali...

The Antisocial Contract | Briefing | Common Wealth Reliance on speculative private developers and market coordination will neither deliver the scale of housebuilding needed to tackle the crisis, nor address its acute distributional dimension. Both obj...

🏠 How do we fix the housing crisis?

Ensuring decent & secure homes for all starts with knowing how we own, invest & access housing.

To launch our new housing programme, @chrismwhayes argues expanding supply is key — but the market alone will not suffice.

www.common-wealth.org/publications...

New from The Break Down!

@cominsitu.bsky.social examines our strategies for protecting nature and makes the case that new legal rights or norms are not enough - and only by transforming property relations can we stop nature’s destruction

The crisis of the present was a choice. Incredible analysis.

This is really interesting and resonates with the argument that @jwfurlong.bsky.social and I developed in The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales (Oxford University Press, 2024) - there are multiple varieties of social and economic left behindedness that have distinct electoral expressions.

An excellent analysis of the economic geography of two supposedly 'left behind' English towns, and would make an excellent teaching resource, as well having a clear critique of neoliberal capitalism.

This is a brilliant report from Common Wealth on the long and deep effects of deindustrialisation in the two Midlands towns of Mansfield and Corby

More impressive work from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social.

Sad to hear Breyten Breytenbach has died.

His line on South Africa - ‘heartspace and the danger of beauty’ - always reminds me of the light in the valley where my father lives.

We can’t understand the geography of capitalism in our present moment without seeing how these old industries overlap with the new.

"Two Towns" features an interactive map showing how ex-industrial towns were not “left behind” but actively made into havens for low-paid work.

'My trade has spent most of the past decade composing sepia-tinged portraits of the industrial working class...It has spent no time on the post-industrial working class: the warehouse workers, the couriers, the hospital porters and cleaners.'

VV good on new report from @sachahilhorst.bsky.social

Chronic pain and ravaged mental health: this is the brutal reality of Britain’s new working class | Aditya Chakrabortty The story of former Amazon worker Karolina Sobczak reveals much about the people who keep our society running – at huge personal cost, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

“Towns like Mansfield were not ‘left behind’ but actively remade through … enterprise zones, land sell-offs & financial perks for large businesses, most of which offered only low-paid, insecure work”

“Two Towns” in @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The project draws on my ethnographic PhD work and I'm so happy to see it out in the world. It comes with a beautiful scroller (two-towns.common-wealth.org) and is discussed in this brilliant piece in today's Guardian t.co/hKzkIPZ0yt

A map of the collieries and factories in North Nottinghamshire, all of which have now closed.

How did Britain's post-industrial towns become hubs of badly paid work and disenchanted politics?
They were not forgotten or 'left behind', but actively remade.
My report for
@cmmonwealth.bsky.social

two-towns.common-wealth.org

we need public ownership to provide global public goods ⬇️

after this week, this is the palate cleanser that is made especially for me

thanks @advaitarun.bsky.social @brusselermel.bsky.social @cthelala.bsky.social & the rest of the @publicenterprise.bsky.social @cmmonwealth.bsky.social dream team