iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Without this Burnham is at risk of backsliding into the expansion of fossil fuels, and business as usual.

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Steel and reindustrialisation has a role to play but it isn't enough. We need to learn from ecological economics and circular economy on how to create jobs for a green transition. We need doughnut and wellbeing economics to understand how narratives of success can be different.

There is no mention of the environment, or a vision of what it means to live well. What's lacking is an answer to the question: what is the economy for. The danger is that this will make Burnham'ss programme one of nostalgia. Nostalgia won't build an economy that works in the 21st century.

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Life’s Essentials, Earth’s Limits: Hope and omissions in Burnhams economic vision.

I read Andy Burnham's first speech as prime minister from an Ecological Economics perspective. Some of it is great: backtracking from neoloberalism, rhetoric of new economics, helping people live well. What's notable is what's missing. open.substack.com/pub/ecolpole...

open.substack.com

Lots to like, with some very notable missing pieces.

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Another Green @anothergreen.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

All I hear is news about fires burning, temperatures rising, heatwave deaths increasing and climate change happening far faster than scientists expected. Yet politicians, newspapers and trade union leaders like Sharon Graham are calling for more oil and gas extraction.

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So we have to rethink basic questions of ownership and decision making. Practically this means unionising and organising within workplaces, and working to change (and bring down!) capitalism as a system.

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Under capitalism, AI will inevitably be used to try minimise labour inputs to any particular process. And to expand the total amount of production (and therefore work) in the economy as a whole. A greater threat of unemployment and a greater amount of work in total.

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The bottom line, I argue, is that Bob enjoys a level of autonomy and control that most of use don't. Too often AI is treated as a deterministic technology - it will liberate us or destroy us. In reality the effects of AI depend on who gets to decide how it is used.

Thankfully not: instead bob has a nap then continues looking after animals. He is able to use the robot pooper-scooper to make his work less pressured, less busy, to focus on the bits he enjoys. Why can't we do this with AI?

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A greedy iguana eats so much that he does a glowing poo. Bob sells it to a poo collector and uses the money to buy a robot pooper-scooper. Oh no! Has bob automated himself into unemployment? Or is he given some other drudgery to replace his shit shovelling?

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Little Bob McGrew is a zookeeper who loves looking after animals, but who is over worked. In particular he is a shit shoveller- he has to go round the zoo picking up poo. As you might imagine, there is a lot of poo to pick up. But, Bob has a stroke of luck.

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If I automated my job, I would expect either to be let go, or given more work to do. Both dynamics shape fears around AI. In my latest substack I find hope for a different future of work, in my toddlers favourite book: poo in the zoo. open.substack.com/pub/ecolpole... #work #ai #economics

An image of the substack: ecological political economy. The cover of the book "poo in the zoo" and a summary of the article.

Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures @granthamcsf.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Reposted by Simon Mair

What is wrong with "work" under capitalism?💰 That is the question @simonmair.bsky.social explored in his fascinating talk yesterday. He argued that work can be re-oriented away from earning a wage and driving profits, into a tool to solve our biggest social and environmental challenges. 🌎

Simon Mair speaking in front of an audience.

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Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures @granthamcsf.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

We fear losing work, yet we dread the work we have! 😢 Join ecological economist @simonmair.bsky.social as he explores how we can reimagine work to help us achieve our environmental and social goals. 📅 7 July 🕔 5-7pm 📍 The Diamond - Lecture Theatre 6 🎟️ Book your free ticket 👉 tinyurl.com/yzak9bye

A poster for "Work and Prosperity: Capitalist Realities, Radical Futures and how we get there" include event title and details on a white background next to a photo of Simon Mair.

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Both. Yes structure is the main issue. But changing it requires people to change. Good people have to take action to drive change & behaviour changes when structure changes. It's the systems thinking concept of moral imagination: the capacity to imagine ways of living beyond the current system.

Christopher Wright @chriswrightau.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Reposted by Simon Mair

How refreshing, a radical plan for implementing a more genuine global sustainability: ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I was recently interviewed by @voiceofislamuk.bsky.social for a guardians of the earth segment. Great questions: is capitalism compatible w/environmental protection? What are planetary boundaries? What can we do about all this? Audio & my notes on sub stack: ecolpolecon.substack.com/p/guardians-...

Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Weird how things travel: I didn't expect a write up of a paper that re-reads Adam Smith from an ecological economics point of view to be published in a mens magazine! goodmenproject.com/featured-con...

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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CUSP //: Post Growth Research Centre @cusp.ac.uk · 08/06/2026

New CUSP research identifies how to make #postgrowth work globally: financial transfers from North to South + international cooperation. The PADME model shows this prevents debt, inflation & unemployment in the South. → cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/... #Postgrowth #Degrowth #GlobalJustice

cusp.ac.uk

Post-growth and the North-South divide: A stock-flow consistent scenario analysis | Journal paper

An unregulated post-growth transition in the North can cause crises in the South: debt, inflation, unemployment. That's the finding of a new paper by D ...

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Full analysis on my new substack: ecolpolecon.substack.com/p/what-garet... Home for ecological economic analysis of contemporary political problems.

ecolpolecon.substack.com

What Gareth Southgate gets wrong about masculinity and the future of work.

Ecofeminism and ecological economics, not liberal feminism and neoliberal economics

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

What does Gareth Southgate get wrong about young men, masculinity & futures of work? The crisis of masculinity requires a reckoning with capitalism, a broadening of what masculinity can be, and industrial policy delivering good work. Not more vocational training and fetishisation of manual labour

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Adam S. Green @adamsgreen.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

We invite papers that help us use humanity's deep past to build a more sustainable future. Submissions start1 September. If you have an idea for a paper, reach out to one of the guest editors! link.springer.com/collections/... @simonmair.bsky.social @jlmunson.bsky.social

link.springer.com

Developing archaeological method and theory for investigating economic growth and degrowth

Economic growth is often considered one of the most powerful forces in human history, and is regularly cited as a driver of ecological, political and ...

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But hopefully our action and reflection in this space can be useful for others. We invite anyone interested in exploring them to contact us.

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In the MEND Network we're interested in trying to reimagine and take back work. The network started life in the efforts of a group of early career academics seeking to align our efforts at teaching management with the social and ecological crises unfolding around us.

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We can use ideas from political economy to understand how the current economic setup makes it hard to do meaningful work. And once we start understand how market structures create the paradox, we can start to find ways to overcome it.

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A big part of this paradox is about the disconnect between what we consider to be important, and the work we get paid to do. Marx's concept of Alienation and Graeber's Bullshit Jobs both help us see this.

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mendnetwork.wordpress.com

Working is often unpleasant, but we fear being without it, and it is something many of us find important. In a blogpost for the MEND* Network, we explore the paradoxical role that work plays in many of our lives. mendnetwork.wordpress.com/2026/02/09/t... *Management Educators Navigating Degrowth

The Paradox of Work

Published by the Management Educators Navigating Degrowth (MEND) collective, with Simon Mair as lead author. Work occupies a paradoxical role in many of our lives: can’t live with it, can’t live wi…

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

We have used growth as a way into conversations about scale. The growth argument has always really been an argument about how big the economy should be, and even if growth stopped tomorrow, we would have a mountain to climb in terms of adequate rates of decarbonisation.

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

In a blog post for @cusp.ac.uk I argue that countries are not decoupling fast enough and that growth remains a barrier to genuine progress on carbon emissions. But the increased rate of decoupling should prompt reflections from environmentalists and ecological economists. cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/...

cusp.ac.uk

Can we really have green growth? | Comment by Simon Mair

Has economic growth really been decoupled from climate damage? In this blog, Simon Mair examines recent claims from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit ...

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Simon Mair @simonmair.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

It's time to talk about emissions and growth again. Certain people got very excited about a substantial number of wealthy nations decoupled growth from carbon. This is good news. But: global emissions grew 2023-2024, and almost certainly grew again in 2025.

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Adam S. Green @adamsgreen.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Archaeologists! Considering joining @simonmair.bsky.social and I at the European Society for Ecological Economics conference in Ghent to provide examples of "non-capitalist economies" that we can use to learn about sustainability.

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You can red the full description here: esee2026ghent.be/wp-content/u... and please message or email me if you want help developing an abstract or more details!

esee2026ghent.be

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This could include, but is not limited to: 1) the application of methods to historical and archaeological data; 2) use of ecological economic methods to analyse present day household or commons based provisioning; 3) development of tools to analyse fictional economies.

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We are particularly interested in methodological reflection and development, either through the extension of existing ecological economic methods to non-capitalist contexts, or development of broader methods to expand the scope of ecological economic analysis of non-capitalist economic activity

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This includes feminist analyses of households, anthropological explorations of commons activity, modelling of eco-socialist systems, and deep historical or archaeological work from past societies.

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In this track we're looking for work that builds on the traditions in Ecological Economics that have a broad conception of what the economy is and can be.

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The Haunted Bookshop @thehauntedbookshop.com · 27/11/2025

Call for abstracts: Learning from Non-Capitalist Economies. Deadline 19th December. Details here: esee2026ghent.be/wp-content/u... Abstracts will form sessions at the 16th Biennial Conference of the European Society of Ecological Economics in Ghent. More details th thread below:

esee2026ghent.be

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Communities need used-book shops. As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories... We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.

On the left, a narrow, glass-fronted display case with a mix of letterpress, hand-bound, antiquarian, and collectors' books; stretching off to the right, 8-foot bookcases laden with literary and contemporary commercial fiction, about one thousand books out of the 6-7 thousand in that section. LED lighting and light-colored wood cases and flooring keep the room feeling relatively spacious despite the sheer quantity of books.

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This is not to say that there is no role for complex models. Our next step in WISE is to add complexity. We're working to extend the analysis of productivity, & this workshop identified shared themes to focus an integrated model. But this is only possible because we have the simpler models.

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Interpretation is key to understanding how to make change. No model can actually tell us what will happen following a change. Any application of model knowledge requires interpretation of model mechanics - judgements about how those mechanisms translate to circumstances beyond the model. 7/8

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Embracing the partial nature of models helps us develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms being modelled. More mechanisms may make models more realistic, but they also make them harder to interpret. 6/8

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All models are partial: Economic methodologist Uskali Mäki argues that models always work by isolating particular causal mechanisms. By manipulating the model we explore what happens when those mechanisms interact. Modelling works best when the number of mechanisms being modelled is fairly small 5/8

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