‘The economy’ is the term we use to describe the systems humans create to facilitate the production, distribution, and consumption of the resources we need to live our lives. Housing, food, healthcare, money, jobs, education, art and culture, sports, entertainment, and the environment are all connected to the economy.
How we organise our economies affects us all, our health and wellbeing and the future of human life on earth. Yet, research conducted by Economy and others highlights that most people in the UK, and globally, feel unable to influence how the economy is organised, either through democracy or in everyday life.
Economic systems – at a local, national and global level – are currently not working for everyone in society. Whilst these systems are able to secure a very high material standard of life for large numbers of people, far too many people still cannot secure the resources they need to survive and reach their full potential.
The ability of different groups to secure their needs and shape economic systems are to a large extent shaped by systemic and historically embedded inequalities along lines of race, gender, socioeconomic status and geography.
In the coming decades we face huge economic opportunities and challenges such as recovering from the pandemic, meeting everyone’s basic needs, reducing inequality, and addressing the environmental crisis.
To meet these we need the expertise, knowledge and participation of communities across the UK, particularly those furthest from power whose perspectives are excluded from current conversations and decision making.
Economies that everyone can shape need to be organised through participatory and democratic approaches, where everyone has the power and agency to meaningfully influence decisions that affect them.
Keep scrolling to find out how we can achieve this, who can make it happen, why it would be better and what we’re doing right now at Economy.
How we can achieve it
Everyday we’re working with individuals, communities and organisations across the UK to better understand how we can build economies that everyone can shape.
Here are seven things we at Economy think are necessary from what we’ve learnt:
Who can make it happen
Creating economies that everyone can shape requires bottom up transformation at an individual and community level, as well as top-down changes in government, the media, education and business.
This kind of large-scale social change requires a broad-based alliance of individuals and organisations from across civil society and the political spectrum. Whilst they will disagree on many things, they will all see the need and urgency to create economies that everyone can shape.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, there is something you can do to contribute.
Find out more about how you or your organisation can take action with us through the ‘Get Involved’ and ‘Partner With Us’ menu options at the top of the page.
How it would be better
We don’t know exactly what a world in which everyone is able to shape the economy would look like, it’s hard to imagine and we think part of the shaping would involve figuring this out together!
But, to get you thinking about the possibilities – here are ten ways we at Economy think it could be better:
What we’re doing now
We are working with individuals and organisations across the country to build economies that everyone can shape.
Learn more about our strategy and impact, and find out more about our current work below.
1 Accessible economics educations and training
“I am filled with hope about this opportunity to discuss the economy in ordinary terms. If this type of discussion group could happen in other places and situations, it would be amazing.
Our adult training, courses and workshops help to improve confidence and understanding around economics, empowering people and communities to engage in decisions that affect their lives. We work with grassroot groups, charities, campaigners, unions and decision makers across the UK, running workshops for their communities.
Participants come away with knowledge of economics and confidence in how to apply that knowledge to their daily lives, communities and work to create social change. By creating a generation of “citizen economists”, our sessions build individuals and communities a voice to begin to take ownership over the economic decisions that affect them.
2 Equipping the next generation
We work with young people in schools and youth organisations to help empower the next generation to navigate a time of profound economic change. Young people feel deeply worried about their economic future, and powerless to change it, with a distrust that their voices are heard. Yet, the young people we work with are hungry for the opportunity to understand how the economy affects them; they describe it as a rite of passage into the adult world.
In schools, we are the only provider of multi-session extracurricular interventions to provide access to economic literacy as an essential part of citizenship education (and distinct from financial capability). We also run one-off workshops and work with youth organisations serving 16-25s.
Find out how you can bring us to your school or youth organisation.
“I now believe knowledge of economics is vital as it can help change my future by being more vocal with my thoughts and feelings… It’s important people my age should get something like this as it gives them the knowledge and power to make change.”
3 Delivering public interest economic news
“I didn’t feel like I was talking economy-economy, like in the scary way where you feel like you should have a degree. If I was on some finance program on the BBC, I would have looked like a moron. But with you guys, it’s a conversation where we’re talking about things that are to do with finances, but also to do with life.
Four out of five people say the economy is relevant to their everyday lives (recognising that it impacts on everything from our job to our homes and political governance), but currently only one in ten think that the media and politicians speak about it in a way that is accessible and understandable.
We run our own news and entertainment platform (ecnmy.org) that takes a public interest approach and is modelling a new way to report on economic news. We are directly delivering demystified economic news at ecnmy.org and through our weekly ‘What Just Happened’ newsletter. We are working with community co-producers to uncover fresh stories about the economy that are being ignored.
4 Build the Economy Co-Produced Media Network
We are building the ‘Economy Co-Produced Media Network’, a network of media partners and community contributors committed to transforming the media ecosystem by:
- Diversifying who has a public voice on the economy;
- Developing a popular language which bridges the currently disconnected worlds of media, economics and everyday life;
- Ensuring more people have the means to hold decision makers accountable.
We are developing a framework for empowering approaches to media co-production with marginalised communities, enabling them to tell their stories and ideas for change.
Find out how your media organisation can access support, training and collaborate with us.