Topic: Finance and debt
The seven myths of ‘slums’ – introduction
Report / 8th December 2010For anyone who takes an interest in the problem of slums, a few basic facts will soon become clear. Firstly, the locus of global poverty is moving from rural areas to the cities, and more than half the world population now lives in urban areas for the first time in human history. Secondly...
The seven myths of ‘slums’ – a summary
Report / 8th December 2010It is easy to believe that urban slums are a consequence of too many people living in cities, or too many poor people migrating from rural to urban areas for governments to contend with the strain on housing. But the real problem is rooted in...
The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 4: slums are an inevitable stage of development
Report / 8th December 2010There is an underlying assumption to much of the debate surrounding slums and urban poverty: that the urban poor will get to our standard of living eventually, and countries of the South will rise to the same level of material affluence as the industrialised North, just so long as...
The seven myths of ‘slums’ – Myth 5: the free market can end slums
Report / 8th December 2010According to the international institutions and powerful states that drive globalisation (along with most of the business community, conservative political parties, libertarian ideologues and the corporate-controlled media that gives voice to their concerns), we are told that social injustice can only be addressed by the proper application of some version of free market capitalism...
Share The World's Resources at the UK steady state economy conference
News / 22nd June 2010STWR joined a diverse group of academics, activists and business people at the first ever international conference on steady state economics held in Leeds.
In defence of downshifting and work sharing
Article / 4th June 2010The proposal for fewer and more evenly shared work hours seems counter-intuitive in the current economic framework. Only by removing the structural bias towards overwork and hyper-consumerism can we build lasting prosperity within ecological limits, argues Anna White.
Challenging the bailout economy
Blog / 18th May 2010As Europe frantically shores up an unravelling economic system, popular protests are erupting against adjustments made to placate the finance markets. Austerity measures and bailouts may keep the banks happy, but what about the people? By Anna White.
Unemployment and the free market in Africa
Article / 7th April 2010Growing unemployment across sub-Saharan Africa is linked to the free market restructuring of national economies over recent decades. Governments must embrace an alternative paradigm of development that prioritises social needs above short-term profit, says Adam Parsons in an interview with Uwana Archibong.
European campaigners demand G7 cancel Haiti’s debts
News / 4th February 2010As G7 finance ministers gather in Iqaluit, Canada, to discuss reforming the global financial system, STWR joins campaigners from around the world in demanding that the IMF immediately and unconditionally cancel Haiti’s debt.
The ‘Tobin tax’ battle has only just begun
Article / 13th November 2009Three decades after its inception, the ‘Tobin tax’ has finally entered the mainstream political debate. Campaigners must now ensure its primary purpose remains to redistribute finance away from the failed banking system and toward benefiting the world’s poor, writes Anna White.