Here are some of our recent events:
Tuesday April 9th 2024: The growing movement of Community Wealth Building’. A Talk by Matthew Brown, Leader of Preston Council.
A term barely unheard of a decade ago many areas in the UK are looking to Community Wealth Building to challenge systemic failures of conventional economic development which has led to rising inequality, economic stagnation, and environmental crisis.
The well-known ‘Preston Model’ is one example of how to develop a more democratic economy in place using various levers and strategies to ensure there is more ownership and control within communities. This is accompanied by a growth of Community Wealth Building policies in many areas of the UK alongside significant international advancement. Matthew Brown from The Democracy Collaborative who is also Leader of Preston City Council will give a talk about the exciting trends to genuinely take back control by promoting strategies that put wealth in a wider number of hands and democratise capital at source.
About Councillor Brown
Councillor Matthew Brown is Leader of Preston City Council in the north of England, where he has been widely credited as the driving force behind the ‘Preston model’, an economic strategy at the city and county level that presents a comprehensive, interlinked approach to community wealth building as a practical and transformative alternative to austerity and disinvestment. First elected to represent the Tulketh ward in 2002, Councillor Matthew Brown subsequently took on portfolios that included community engagement and inclusion, social justice and policy initiatives, leading to his election in 2018 as Council Leader.
Tuesday May 7th 2024: 'Framing, Financing and Delivering a Green Basic Income’. Dr Reinhard Huss.
Reinhard's talk is available here.
Reinhard will discuss the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) definition of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and some important gaps in the definition. The opposition against UBI is often focused on the issues of costs, affordability and feasibility. However, what matters in the end is the public demand and the political will to introduce UBI as a societal institution to offer everybody a secure social foundation. He will explain that UBI can support the socio-ecological transformation from an industrial extract-produce—consume-waste economy to a grand-children-friendly circular economy. We need to change our attitudes about UBI from ‘free money’ to a ‘right to subsistence’ and about our Commons from ‘free for all’ to our ‘collective inherited wealth’. The actual free-riding of our Commons (Air, Water, Soil, others) will be replaced by fees for their use. These fees will finance UBI and essential services. UBI delivery will be the responsibility of several Commons Trust Funds rather than the State.
About Dr Huss
Reinhard Huss studied medicine in Bonn and Nottingham and worked in the NHS as a clinical doctor and researcher for four years including two in Leeds. He worked for five years in Zimbabwe as a clinical medical officer and for seven years in the Central African Republic as public health (PH) advisor. Afterwards he became a PH advisor for German Technical Cooperation and later taught at the University of Heidelberg with various PH assignments in Africa, Asia and Europe. Before his retirement in 2019 he was the programme leader for the Master of International PH at the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development at the University of Leeds. In 1991 Reinhard became interested in Universal Basic Income (UBI) when he wrote his public health master thesis at the University of Leeds on the topic of ‘Economic Justice for Sustainable Health’. The thesis explored the concept of time autonomy as an important factor of personal health. Moreover we require UBI as a societal institution to give practical meaning to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25 ‘Right to Adequate Standard of Living’. Reinhard is coordinator of UBI Lab Leeds, member of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE).
In case you would like an introduction to Basic Income before our session, you may want to listen to the poem of Jose Cordon ‘Living in America’ at https://twitter.com/mayorsforagi/status/1724513827562098919?s=46&t=toG3x4cuZV5aKBTBRiBq9A or read the Morning Star article ‘After AI: time to embrace universal basic income'
Tuesday June 4th 2024: 'Born In Bradford – research that changes a city’. Dr Dan Lewer, Consultant in Public Health, head of the Bradford Centre for Health Data Science.
Summary
Born In Bradford is one of the biggest health research projects in the world. Between 2007 and 2011, we recruited over 12,000 families during pregnancy. We’ve done detailed surveys and collected biological samples. We’ve also started ambitious projects to learn from data collected routinely by the NHS. There is a vast scientific output from these endeavours. But more fundamentally, we’re trying to work out how research can be embedded in a city and improve the health and wellbeing of its residents. Dan will talk about Born In Bradford and its trials, tribulations, and totemic achievements.#
Biographical Details
Dan is a public health specialist and epidemiologist. He is a quantitative researcher who analyses observational data (ie. data collected about the ‘real world’ rather than as part of an experiment). He focuses on mental health (particularly for young people), the way the healthcare system treats people with stigmatising conditions such as drug and alcohol dependence, and social exclusion. Dan is a Consultant in Public Health, head of the Bradford Centre for Health Data Science, and Associate Professor of public health and epidemiology at University College London.
Wednesday October 9th 2024: 'Homelessness and the Housing Emergency’. A Talk by Ellie Tomlin, Regional Fundraiser for Shelter.
Summary
Ellie will talk about the current housing emergency in this country, the scale of it and what this looks like for individuals and communities. She will also talk about the government’s current plans for housing and what Shelter is campaigning to see.
Biographical Details
Ellie has worked at Shelter since 2020, in fundraising and community engagement. In that time, she has seen how Shelter and the housing emergency has been affected by a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and changes in Government. Currently 1 in 3 people are impacted by the housing emergency. Shelter’s work involves advice and support for those facing homelessness, whilst campaigning on local and national levels to improve the situation.
Wednesday November 13th 2024: 'Climate Change and Human Rights in International Law’. A talk by Professor Surya Subedi, Professor of International Law, University of Leeds’.
Summary
Professor Subedi will talk about the extent to which a human rights framework can be used to require states to prevent climate change and mitigate its impact on human life. My focus will be on analysing the obligations of states arising from the universality of human rights and how they relate to climate change and how various principles of international law could be utilised to require both states and business organisations to align their activities towards preventing climate change.
Biographical Details
Surya P. Subedi is Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds and a barrister in London. He also is a visiting professor on the international human rights law programme of the University of Oxford. He served as the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia for six years (2009-2015). He also served for five years, starting in 2010, on an advisory group on human rights to the British Foreign Secretary. In 2021, he was appointed legal procedural advisor to the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature held in Marseille, France. He has written a number of works on the theory and practice of international law and human rights and acted as a counsel in a number of cases before the international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice. He obtained his first degree in Law from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, a Master’s degree with Distinction from the University of Hull and a DPhil (PhD) as well as a higher doctorate – the DCL – from the University of Oxford. He was made an honorary OBE in 2004 and a QC (now KC) in 2017.
