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I had an interesting few weeks at the end of the summer. As well as working on my research, beginning to build a research design and methodology for the thesis, I was nominated to stand in a council by-election. It involved lots of doorstepping, lots of speaking to actual people, lots of conversations with angry…
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There’s a neat definition of the foundational economy (FE), put together by the Foundational Economy Collective at Manchester University. They describe at as the infrastructure of everyday life. There is plenty of debate around growth, degrowth, post-growth and the measuring of economic well-being and understanding the performance of our economies. I like to consider the…
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Slightly obscured by the greening landscape surrounding it in the picture above is the Treforest Industrial Estate. You may be able to make out the outlines of the corrugated roofs of the factories which comprised the estate since its inception. It’s an enormous space for manufacturing, warehouses, and in recent years (or maybe decades) learning…
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Is decline in the UK’s post industrial places is now as psychologically fixed as it is structurally? One of the observations from the latest UK competitiveness index, or NICE Index Report 2025, produced by Robert Huggins of Cardiff University and Piers Thompson at Nottingham Trent University, is that people in these places, such as the…
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I’ve set this up as a place to publish thoughts, observations, ideas on the foundational economy and other alternatives around regeneration in Wales. Essentially, it’s a way of getting me in the habit of writing about this field as I begin a research project looking into the foundational economy and its impact on communities, people…