Theme: Political Economy | Content Type: Journal article

Labour's ‘Everyday Economy’: Why, How, and for Whom?

Christine Berry

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Carl Raw

| 1 min read

The literature on the ‘everyday’ or ‘foundational’ economy poses fundamental challenges to orthodox economic thinking. First, it implies a different way of thinking about economic success, based on good lives for all rather than growth for growth's sake. Second, it emphasises how dominant financialised business models undermine good outcomes for both workers and consumers. But, since the ‘everyday economy’ as a political frame does not make these issues explicit, it leaves room for them to be elided as part of Labour's post-Corbyn rebranding. When Starmer's Labour has squarely confronted issues of power and ownership in the ‘everyday economy’—for example, with its proposed windfall tax on oil and gas firms or plans for publicly-owned energy generation—it has reaped political dividends. However, it remains to be seen whether the party has the appetite to build on these interventions and set out a broader agenda for structural reform.

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    Christine Berry

    Christine Berry is an independent writer and researcher, contributing editor of Renewal journal, Associate Fellow of IPPR North and Senior Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab.

    Articles by Christine Berry
Volume 96, Issue 3

Latest Journal

Volume 96, Issue 3

This issue features a collection titled 'The Intellectual and Political Legacy of David Marquand', who died in April 2024, edited by Colin Crouch, Ben Jackson and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Jean Seaton, Will Hutton and Hilary Wainwright consider Marquand's legacy as a great progressive thinker, his biography of Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first prime minister, and the role of socialism for Marquand. Other articles include a commentary by Deborah Mabbett titled 'Welfare reform by numbers'; Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams on 'The Vices of Values: Matthew Goodwin and the Politics of Motivation'; Helen McCarthy on 'Why the WASPI has no Sting: Gender, Generation and Pension Inequalities'; and Sam Taylor Hill, Tariq Modood and John Denham on 'Multicultural Nationalism: Saving the White Working Class from Blue Labour?' A selection of book reviews feature Edmund Fawcett's review of 'Nationalism: A World History' by Eric Storm and Samuel Cohn's review of 'Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid' by Sheilagh Ogilvie.

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