Ian Christie is Senior Lecturer in the Social Science of Sustainable Development at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey and with many associations in academia and the think tank world, not least the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity ('CUSP') and the New Economics Foundation ('NEF').
This conversation took place in early January 2022, soon after the climate negotiations of COP26 but before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It goes for almost 40 minutes because of the richness of Ian's contributions, especially on the role of democracy and the need for post-growth.
Links
Surrey Climate Commission: "Our aim is to provide an independent and authoritative voice to all organisations in Surrey, whether they be private, or public sector or other, helping them contribute to the County reaching its necessary climate target, to avoid the damaging effects of runaway climate change."
Post-Growth is also a book by one of Ian's colleagues, Prof Tim Jackson.
Perspectiva: "a community of expert generalists working on an urgent one hundred year project to improve the relationships between systems, souls and society in theory and practice"
Timings
1:19 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?
2:50 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?
7:32 - BONUS QUESTION: Why should we prefer function democracy to dictatorship?
11:06 - BONUS QUESTION: How do we get from where we are (in the UK) to a healthy democracy that can cope with the challenges we face today?
19:59 - BONUS QUESTION: Do we need to reduce the volume of economic activity (ie degrowth or post-growth) for the most affluent places in the world?
23:08 - BONUS QUESTION: Is it realistic to have conscious conversion en mass amongst affluent populations or whether actually shaping through social engineering as happened in the second half of the 20th century is more realistic
26:25 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?
30:07 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?
31:38 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?
34:06 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?
36:08 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
For the themes, follow this link.
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Thank you for listening! -- David
