Celebrate St David’s Day with FDSD’s Spring Newsletter
This newsletter is the second in a series exploring how sustainable development, future generations and wellbeing are being incorporated into democracy and public policy around the UK.
Wales—A Well-Being Nation
In this article, Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner of Wales, sets out his Office’s new seven year strategy, arguing that the WfG Act has to now “work harder and faster”, even though, at the same time as public finances, including his own office, are under severe pressure.
FDSD Newsletter, Autumn 2023
From national to local level, Scotland is rethinking how its policy, and participation practices, can better reflect sustainable development, wellbeing, and the needs of future generations. This FDSD newsletter showcases some of the activities that are happening, or are being considered.
Deepening Democracy for the Long Term | By Graham Smith
The public’s perspectives on future generations are highly structured by the context in which they are articulated. A long-term perspective is rarely taken by people when they make immediate and everyday decisions – with the exception of those motivated by ‘lifetime-transcending interests’.
Deliberative democracy and the just transition: from one-off activities to embedded participation | Winter Newsletter, 2022
FDSD has been quiet during COVID, but not inactive. We have been rethinking how we can best contribute to the profound challenges facing democracies today.
Democratic infrastructure: turning one-off deliberations into resilient democracies
Isolated deliberations cannot sustain resilient democracies. While they enable a momentary reinvention, improvement, or extension, they do not, inherently, enable the creation of continuous, strategic, and future capacities for strengthening and reimagining democracy.
Towards collaborative governance: Why innovation in deliberative democracy and the public sector must go hand in hand
Lukas Kübler, Giulia Molinengo and Monika Arzberger from the Collaborative Governance Lab in Germany argue that ‘collaborative governance’ may help reconcile the logic of public governance—accountability, hierarchy and control—with that of deliberative democracy—flexibility, horizontality and openness.
Why understanding what people think is crucial to the next phase of climate policy—Interview with Chris Stark | By Jake Ainscough
Jake Ainscough from the Climate Citizens project at Lancaster University interviews Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Climate Change Committee to explore the Committee’s recent experiments with deliberative engagement. He outlines where they are relevant, and how to overcome barriers to take up.
Brussels launches permanent citizens’ assembly on climate
The Brussels-Capital Region has announced that it will launch a permanent Citizens’ Assembly on Climate in 2023. Each year, the assembly will bring together 100 citizens to select topics, deliberate and come to recommendations.
Building a more effective and participatory government | Workshop with Matthew Quinn and Walter Pasquarelli, 22 Sept 2022
In Sept 2022, FDSD partnered with the Institute for Government and the Bennett Institute, University of Cambridge to hold a workshop at IfG on Building a more effective and participatory government—to improve policy-making and delivery.
Constitutionalising the long-term future | Conference
As part of their ongoing research on Present Democracy for Future Generations, the Laboratory of Ethics and Political Philosophy in the Nova University, Lisbon’s Institute of Philosophy, Ifilnova, held a conference on 19-20 September 2022 on Constitutionalizing the long-term future: Establishing intergenerational justice in national constitutions.
Young adults have dramatic loss of faith in UK democracy | A report by The Institute for Public Policy Research
FDSD believes that democracy needs to adapt in order to meet the challenges of sustainable development, but equally that democracy itself is a better away of achieving sustainable goals than autocracy. However, our current democratic system has been facing challenges for some time. In April 2022, a report by The Institute for Public Policy Research with polling by YouGov, illustrated the depth of this problem
Improving accountability to deliver Scotland’s National Outcomes
On the 10th of March 2022, the Scottish Leaders Forum (SLF) published a report on “Improving accountability and incentives to deliver the National Performance Framework (NPF) outcomes and live the values.” The forum includes over 300 senior leaders drawn from across the public services, third sector organisations, equality groups, and organisations that are delivering public services.
President of Portugal commits to intergenerational fairness
On the 22nd March 2022 the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sous, announced that he is to champion intergenerational fairness. This announcement took part in an event hosted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, who have been working with the School Of International Futures (SOIF) on getting policy-makers to promote inter-generational fairness.
The launch of a Greater Manchester Community Wealth Hub
On the 16th March 2022 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority launched Manchester’s first Community Wealth Hub. The development of this hub arose from a recommendation of the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission to “Create a Community Wealth Hub to support and grow co-operatives, mutuals, social and community enterprises”. The Hub aims to promote and develop networks for support, provide advice, attract investments, spark innovation, and impact policy.
Future Trends Report Wales 2021
The Future Trends Report Wales 2021 brings together possible future trends, drivers of change and potential risks across all sectors comprising the wellbeing of Wales. The report highlights intergenerational challenges to which Wales needs to respond and identifies key social, economic, environmental, and cultural trends challenges that could affect Wales in the future.
Towards a New Civic Bureaucracy | New book by Matthew Quinn
The focus on the crisis of party-political democracy has diverted attention away from the role of wider institutions of governance. In his book, Towards a New Civic Bureaucracy: Lessons from sustainable development for the crisis of governance, Matthew Quinn redresses this balance and argues that our current public bureaucracy is dominated by technocratic approaches that do not serve our troubled democracies well.
Can Cities Use the Doughnut Model to Hack Liberal Democracy | A Carnegie Europe Article
The question “Can Cities Use the Doughnut Model to Hack Liberal Democracy?” is analysed in Olivia Lazard’s article in Carnegie Europe. The Doughnut Model developed by Kate Raworth has been applied in many cities as a method to tackle the climate crisis. As centers of economic activity and democratic institutions, cities can lead the systemic change needed to support sustainable development.