Knowing what the next decade has in store can help progressives to shape the future. Mathew Lawrence outlines the major factors that will impact British lives over the next 10 years – including Brexit, ecological instability, and technological transformations in social and economic life – and argues for a future‐focussed strategy for change.
When global markets leave resources and power in the hands of too few people, everybody suffers, says Charles Leadbeater. The ALT/Now programme – a Canadian group of social entrepreneurs – demonstrates how an ethic of stewardship can shift our economy towards one that puts people first.
As centre‐left parties falter across Europe, Claudia Chwalisz wonders whether progressives can find the roots of a resurgence in Justin Trudeau's victory. Or is there nothing for them to learn from this uniquely Canadian tale?
With mainstream politics seemingly in disarray, Chris Bickerton asks whether a victory for either Macron or Le Pen would represent the collapse of the traditional left–right party politics in France.
The platform business model is predicated upon a voracious appetite for data that can only be sated by disregard for privacy (and often workers' rights), and constant outward expansion. As they become ever more central to the global economy, Nick Srnicek argues that it's incumbent on us to understand how they function.
The subordination of society to self‐regulating international markets is the reason why British workers and industries so often fall prey to predatory financiers, writes Ann Pettifor. It is also a fundamental cause of current political crises throughout the west – just as Karl Polanyi described almost 80 years ago.
For so long a fanciful dream on the fringes of serious politics, Joe Chrisp explores why calls for a basic income are being embraced by the mainstream in both the UK and around the world. But with advocates on both left and right, is the vision being blurred by a familiar ideological battleground?
Labour's anxiety about being outflanked by Ukip and the Conservatives on the Leave side, while justified, may be blinding it to a more urgent problem in its electoral base, warns John Curtice . Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats are setting out a stall for Remain voters that Labour supporters are steadily trickling, if not flocking, towards.
Brexit poses unique and disproportionate challenges to Northern Ireland, and has laid bare the frailties of power‐sharing, argue Máire Braniff and Sophie Whiting. Political leaders, they urge, must come together from across the spectrum and place Northern Ireland before the deeply embedded fault lines of nationalism and unionism.
Sivamohan Valluvan argues that to understand how the idea of nation has recovered its lustre, we need to re‐examine the core historical principles of European nationalism, and the place of race and racism within them; stop assuming the primacy of economic developments; and address the multiple ideological forms within the new nationalism.
The decline of deference in the UK may have given rise to greater individualism and class‐dealignment at the ballot box. But for the left, argues Florence Sutcliffe‐Braithwaite, it also holds the promise of a new politics of localism and democratised policymaking – provided that the Labour party is able to grasp the opportunity.
The case for an unconditional basic income often founders on moral questions of distribution and reciprocity. But as Hillel Steiner explains, left libertarianism offers not only a robust justification of a basic income as compensation for private ownership of our natural inheritance, but a practical account of how it can be funded.
The current travails of Europe's social democratic parties can only worsen if they fail to respond to the digital revolution's impacts on the labour market, society, and even their core values. Henning Meyer discusses how new approaches to policy can ensure that human freedom, justice and solidarity can thrive alongside the robots.
Kathryn Perera argues for placing organising – knowing ‘how to combine’ – at the heart of Labour party renewal. While recent efforts have petered out or drifted away from core electioneering, she outlines the organising mindset that has the potential to provide the ‘means to channel expressive demand into political action’.
Monica Duffy Toft argues that the trend of extremist violence in the UK and Europe towards smaller, softer targets demands a networked response capable of understanding and outmaneuvering the loose affiliations of radicalised individuals and groups that inspire and perpetrate these attacks.
The success of the Leave campaign reflects the fundamental disconnect, Tom Kibasi argues, between expectations and the realities of life for many. Confronting the response required, he says, means closing this gap, and ‘understanding that we are more than what we owe and what we own’. This is the new ‘battle for Britain’.
While secular stagnation has won many adherents, Toby Nangle offers an alternative understanding of global economics and demography – one that points towards persistently falling inequality and a future that belongs more to workers than to capital. But should we hold our breath for that inflection point?
Using the latest polling data, John Curtice investigates Labour supporters' stance on the EU referendum result – do they favour immigration controls over free trade? Hard or soft Brexit? He finds plenty of contradictions in a complex picture – but what should the party do to reflect its voters' views?
Job quality has become a prominent issue in recent years ‐ and with good reason, say Francis Green, Alan Felstead and Duncan Gallie. Their findings on inequality and job quality and how they have changed illuminate the true state of Britain's labour market, and make clear the need for changes in policy to improve working lives.
