The 7th Foundational Economy Conference, entitled ‘Making things work: social innovation for liveability’ was held at sbarcIspark on the 10th and 11th of September 2024. It brought together researchers and practitioners in themed sessions that explored foundational issues and interventions from Wales, the rest of the UK and all across Europe.
Our challenge is making things work when market and state are not delivering foundational liveability. With the “cost of living crisis”, markets are not reliably and affordably providing essentials like energy and food for low- and medium-income households. Governments struggle to manage short-term crises and dodge the long-term costs of system renewal. While “welfare state” entitlement through social insurance, income transfer and subsidised services is increasingly stressed.
The foundational question is whether and how different actors can address these problems with social innovation focused on the objectives of improving household liveability and building the stock of capable firms within planetary limits. Adaptive reuse of systems of provision is difficult when such systems resist change, innovation does not lead to sustainable success and top-down policy roll outs will not work.
Conference sessions aimed to address these challenges by covering areas such as: rebuilding foundational systems, regressive utility charging, localising supply chains, community economic development, income, space and time, bringing care into healthcare, delivering free school meals, and developing community infrastructure and facilities.
The conference closed with a final panel session that addressed the question: “What do we and can we expect from progressive governments?” Delegates heard from Sarah de Boeck (IDEA, Brussels), Matt Thompson (University College London) and Lee Waters (MS) before final closing comments from Karel Williams (Foundational Alliance Wales/Foundational Economy Research).