Whose risk? Whose responsibility? The politics and financialisation of uncertainty

At the STEPS Centre Symposium on the Politics of Uncertainty, Susan Erikson (Simon Fraser) and Rebecca Elliott (LSE) presented fascinating cases for the insurance theme, which was part of the…

Solidarity, insurance, emotions and uncertainty

I spent a fascinating three days at the STEPS Politics of Uncertainty Conference in July, and in the last few weeks have been mulling over what I have taken from…

What Greece can learn from Africa about the effects of austerity after a debt crisis

Ian Scoones, republished from The Conversation   Some have asked what can Africa learn from Greece. I argue that Greece (and others) can learn a lot from the African experience….

Why isn’t global renewable energy investment growing faster?

Guest blog by Stephen Spratt, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies Last Friday I was a discussant at a fascinating seminar given at SPRU by Marianna Mazzucato and…

Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation: top-down missions or bottom-up causes?

Andy Stirling, co-director of STEPS, will be a speaker at the conference Mission-Oriented Finance for Innovation on 22-24 July in London, which examines the important role of public sector agencies…

Mariana Mazzucato on ‘The Green Entrepreneurial State’: video, audio & slides

Mariana Mazzucato gave a public lecture on ‘The Green Entrepreneurial State’ as part of this year’s STEPS Summer School. Audio, video and slides from her talk are now available (see…

GUARDIAN VIDEO: MELISSA LEACH ON PAYING THE CLIMATE CHANGE BILL

In the run up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change, here’s Melissa Leach from the STEPS Centre talking about how to pay the climate change bill. Payments from industrialised…

STEPS SYMPOSIUM: IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

By Sara J Wolcott Hardly surprisingly, the implications of the Financial Crisis of 2008 was a sub-theme of the Symposium. Several participants noted that there seems to be less money…