Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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A book of pedestrian economic and political prescriptions
BRIGHTON BEACH: Occasional 'culturally required' purchases, such as a holiday
[G-Man/CC]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
Foundational Economy: The infrastructure of everyday life
by The Collective Foundational Economy
Manchester University Press £11.99
THE opening chapters of this book reminded me of president John F Kennedy’s trenchant and moving attack on the idea that a country’s progress can be judged by GDP figures. The Gross Domestic Product, he said “measures everything... except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Many proposals to re-focus economy theory and policy away from national income accounting have been published. In this case the focus is the “foundations” of an economy – consisting of zones “producing daily essential goods and services which are critical to citizens flourishing.”
There are three main areas: the “material” Foundational Economy (FE) consists of those pipes and networks “which continuously connect households to everyday life including water, electricity, food, transport and telecoms.”
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