How can we nurture visions of the good life that preserve nature and protect the interests of future generations? Can new institutions help us to re-invigorate democracy? Can creativity inspire us to conserve what we love? How can we become the ‘good ancestors’ we would wish for our kids, in the world they will inherit? CUSP and FDSD are delighted to invite you to the latest in the series of dialogues on the Nature of Prosperity, hosted by Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
RSA - Bridges to the Future podcast: How do we find new ways to tackle historic problems?
EPISODE SUMMARY
As the footballer Marcus Rashford has shown, it's not just the power of celebrity that can bring about real change but the way that an issue is framed and presented. This week Matthew meets three individuals - a charity worker, a politician and a social entrepreneur - to hear their big ideas to reframe arguments for progressive change, and to help solve complex issues such as child poverty and inequality.
EPISODE NOTES
Global crises cause big changes and reveal deep structural weaknesses.
In this special interview series from the RSA its chief executive, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for one big idea to help build effective bridges to our new future.
Kirsty McNeill is an Executive Director at Save the Children. To find out more about their latest report, Covid's Kids: Repaying our Debt to the Covid Generation click here.
Jane Davidson is Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales, a former politician, and now author #futuregen.
John Bird is an activist, social entrepreneur and co-founder of The Big Issue. He's is a member of the House of Lords.
You can read more about the Well-being of Future Generations Act by clicking here.
Europe Now Journal: Editor's Pick - November 2020
#futuregen. Lessons from a Small Country
By Jane Davidson
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Recommended by Elizabeth Jones
Jane Davidson’s #futuregen is an eloquent and deeply personal handbook for democratic governance in the twenty-first century. In six chapters, Davidson reflects on her twin passions for the natural environment and social justice, and how she channeled that energy into groundbreaking 2015 legislation for the Welsh nation: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act that mandated that all government plans, whether for a new road, educational institution, airport, or housing development must be sustainable―defined as “the maximization of well-being over the long term (56).” The consideration for future generations into the practice of politics, begun in 1992, was a long uphill climb. Davidson stresses that this framework allowed campaigners to sidestep the false choice of either bolstering the economy or reviving Wales’ biodiversity and the partisan bickering and inaction bred by such dichotomies. Davidson, now a smallholder in West Wales and Pro-Vice Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, is the former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, Sustainability in the Welsh Government. She shares credit for the Act with mentors and collaborators, the most important which were ordinary Welsh citizens who answered the question: “what sort of country do you want to see in future?” Dubbed “the Wales we want,” the 2011-12 initiative took its cue from the United Nations’ “The World We Want” dialogues about global sustainability and how it can be achieved. Davidson’s success at nudging a range of skeptical government actors for their support is deeply indebted to the voices of young Welsh citizens, environmental scientists, and grassroots social justice advocates who offered hopeful, and specific, visions for the future. She argues that the campaign was as much a cultural as a legislative endeavor, and that thinking and acting sustainably needs to become matter-of-course rather than seen as a series of tiresome hurdles.
Davidson’s attention to moral suasion in enacting sweeping political change is at once pragmatic and idealistic. She is justifiably proud of the Welsh model for making sustainability mainstream and points to the Act’s many ripple effects, both as a template for other nations, including the UK, and in the Welsh projects undertaken since the Act passed. Among the most exciting of these is Project Skyline, the plan to transform three valleys in South Wales from environmentally ravaged and impoverished former mining communities into vibrant and sustainable ones by 2050. Launched in 2019, the initiative rests on collective ownership of the land, where residents “had no difficulty in instinctively balancing the goals of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act” (150). #futuregen is an ambitious book because Davidson expects governments and citizens alike to roll up their sleeves and follow the Welsh example, no matter where they live. She shows us how to begin our journey toward sustainability at the individual, community, regional, national, and global levels.
In Conversation With Jane Davidson: Joyce and Nigel Gervis
In the latest episode of Jane Davidson in Conversation, Jane speaks to Joyce and Nigel Gervis of Ty Mawr Lime about their award-winning business – discovering how they've become a market leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of environmentally-friendly building materials and systems, discussing how the building industry in Wales is changing; and exploring the importance of bringing business into the country.
Thinking about Recovery—An Audience with the CUSP Advisory Committee
As UK and EU governments struggle to articulate the foundations for a fair, green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we explore what can be learned from recent debates about wellbeing, societal transformation and sustainable prosperity. For the last five years, our CUSP Advisory Team has supported, guided and inspired our work at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.
In this unique webinar, you hear their thoughts about this vital issue and engage with the audience in this vital conversation. Speakers are: Camilla Toulmin (CUSP AdCom Chair, Economist and former Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)), Alice Bell (Director of Communications, Possible), Jane Davidson (Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wales Trinity Saint David), Katherine Trebeck (Advocacy and Influencing Lead, Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll)), Henrietta Moore (Director, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity), Oliver Bettis (Former Chairperson of the Sustainability Board, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA)), Sian Ferguson (Trust Executive, Ashden Trust, JJ Charitable Trust and Mark Leonard Trust), Jeremy Oppenheim (Senior Managing Partner, Systemiq Ltd), Simon Sharpe (Deputy Director, UK Government’s Cabinet Office COP26 Uni); chaired by CUSP Director Tim Jackson.
Food, Farming and Countryside Commission - Trade Unwrapped: Jane Davidson and Carwyn Jones in Discussion
Throughout this series, Trade Unwrapped talks to trade experts, policy makers and the British public to understand what issues really matter. How much do we or should we care about standards, fairness, and about protecting British interests? And what are the connections between trade and climate, nature, jobs, and health?
Jane Davidson and Carwyn Jones discuss the ‘recipe for conflict’ at the heart of the Internal Markets Bill, the impact it could have on standards in devolved nations - and how the UK could find common ground.
From What If to What Next Podcast: What if governments factored future generations into law and policy?
In Episode 13 of Rob Hopkins’ podcast, From What If to What Next, Jane Davidson and Roman Krznaric discuss ‘What if governments factored future generations into law and policy?’
More information here: https://www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext
Paramaethu Cymru Online Gathering 2020
Why Paramaethu Cymru?
Permaculture finds a natural home in Wales, a country which has sustainable development in its constitution and has always valued the local ‘square mile’, cooperation and education. There are many examples of permaculture in practice here, including smallholdings, community gardens, design courses and schools programmes and now is the time to make all this more visible.
Paramaethu Cymru – the term ‘paramaethu’ (from para, lasting: amaethu, farming; maeth, nurture) was adopted at the 2012 Eisteddfod – now has a bilingual website at http://wales.permaculture.org.uk where we are mapping projects, courses, events and news. This will enable permaculture to connect to national institutions concerned with government, farming, environment and education, as well as allowing the general public to get involved in their local area.
Programme
Dr Jane Davidson: 12pm Jane Davidson is the author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country and Chair of the Wales Inquiry of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. From 2007- 2011, she was Minister for Environment and Sustainability in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainability the central organising principle of government; the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act came into law in 2015. She is patron of CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) and Tools for Self Reliance Cymru. She lives on an organic smallholding in west Wales.
Jane Powell: 2pm What should we ask for in a Food Manifesto for Wales? – is to help shape the food system in Wales. It is closely aligned with the Well-being of Future Generations Act and is based on principles of citizenship and shared values. See https://foodmanifesto.wales/ for further details.
Dr Matt Swarbrick: 4pm What would permaculture inspired farming in Wales look like?
Matt is a farmer at Henbant in North West Wales. He is an ecologist by background, is passionate about farm-scale permaculture and would love to see the world's problems solved through good farming and great food.
We’re now on a mission as a farm to see what happens if you apply permaculture design to a small welsh hill farm.. Is it possible to produce real food, pay a mortgage, build biodiversity and soil, build social capital and community, and to do so while enjoying it? And if it is possible surely that would solve the world's problems? Well possibly not but it could solve most of Wales' problems? If it can, why aren't more people doing it? And what would it look like if they were?..
Matt will share a short video and we then can discuss this topic... It's just as relevant.
Dr Elizabeth Westaway: 6pm Food as Medicine - a public health nutritionist who is promoting nutrient-dense food and 'Food as Medicine' to reduce/prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases, e.g. Type 2 diabetes.
In Conversation With Jane Davidson: David Hieatt
About David Hieatt
Bankrupt at 16. Thrown out of college at 18. Joined Saatchi and Saatchi at 21. Had a ball. Left advertising to go back to Wales. Started howies in 1995. Sold it to Timberland. Left. Started The DO Lectures, which was voted one of the top 10 ideas festivals in the world by the Guardian.
And in 2012 started a company making jeans called The Hiut Denim Co. in his home town of Cardigan. A town that used to have Britain’s biggest jeans factory. Its purpose is to get 400 people their jobs back. As of today, it now employs 30 people.
Podcast: What Could Possibly Go Right? #16 Jane Davidson - Fairness to the Future
In this new interview series sponsored by Post Carbon Institute, Vicki Robin, activist and best selling author on sustainable living, talks with provocative thought leaders about emerging possibilities and ways humanity might step onto a better, post-pandemic path. https://bit.ly/pci-wcpgrseries
Jane Davidson is the author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country, the story of why Wales was the first country in the world to introduce legislation to protect future generations. She is Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. From 2000-2011, Jane was Minister for Education, then Minister for Environment, Sustainability in the Welsh Government.