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This article conceptualises the circular economy as a space of immaterial as well as material metabolic flows mediated by capitalism and planetary urbanisation. World-ecology provides the critical lens to view the circular economy as part of an emergent regime of accumulation that may supersede neoliberalism. However, if each regime entails new frontier zones for appropriating cheap natures and dumping wastes, then the circular economy – as a strategy for revalorising waste – presents a possible structural limit to capitalism’s further expansion. Moreover, when combined with notions of degrowth and doughnut economics, the circular economy may provide an imaginary and set of prefigurative practices that point towards a postcapitalist society. Through a case study of Amsterdam – a city aiming to be fully circular by 2050 – we examine this contradictory crossroads, by problematising the idea of circularity within capitalism and exploring the potential of postcapitalist alternatives within the circular economy.

Within the UK and as well as further afield, the spatial delineations of the ’city region’ have seen a renaissance as the de-facto spatial political units of governance for economic development (Clarke & Cochrane, 2013, Sykes et al. 2021). In the UK, successive Governments have sought to reshape the ways in which economic development takes place, and although this shift in governmental delivery began under New Labour, it has been much vaunted by the UK Coalition Government (Deas, 2013), and subsequently by the continuing Conservative administration (Conservative Party, 2015) and the Welsh Labour Party (Bristow, 2015). This chapter, therefore, addresses the (re-)positioning of civil society within these new structures of city region governance. Based on stakeholder mapping and semi-structured interviews with key actors operating across each city region, the chapter illustrates how this has created several significant tensions as well as opportunities for civil society actors.

Emerging in the mid-2010s, the Foundational Economy has been heralded as ‘a compelling counter-project against neoliberalism’ and ‘an alternative pathway … [for] progressive political renewal’. Grounded in a review of cross-disciplinary debates, this paper introduces the concept of the Foundational Economy and places it in relation to heterodox geographic theories of socio-economic development such as the ‘social economy’ and ‘diverse economies’ literature. Whilst there are clear overlaps, the concept of the Foundational Economy can be distinguished through its commitment to (a) a zonal perspective; (b) a focus on maximalist social innovations; and (c) the reconstitution of citizenship. In radical combination, it is argued that the lens of the Foundational Economy facilitates ‘a trenchant critique and denaturalization of current conditions, in tandem with creative explorations of the political economy of alternatives’. The paper concludes by reflecting on current oversights and future research trajectories for Foundational Economy research.

This report was produced in November 2022 as part of research undertaken by the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) as part of its ESRC Centre research programme. Fifteen remote interviews were conducted in English or Welsh (depending on the participant’s choice) by three researchers (Dr Beel, Prof IR Jones, Dr Russell). A range of potential participants were identified in dialogue with Alwen Williams the Programme Director of the North Wales Growth Deal (NWGD), from which we sampled a cross-section of interviewees, supplemented by interviews with a small number of political leaders. Whilst the interviewees will remain anonymous, they included: lead officers for economy, regeneration and development, local authority chief executives, NWGD team members, chief executives/managing director of NWGD partners, and local authority leaders. The interviews were supplemented with a limited review of reports and minutes associated with the NWGD. The interview schedule had been co-developed with members of the NWGD team and were conducted with a semi-structured approach. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using qualitative data processing software (NVivo). Interview transcripts can be made available on request by interviewees. These interviews were conducted as part of a wider research project focused on the role of regional economic development policy in supporting the strengthening of the Foundational Economy. The research was given ethical approval by the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (Reference Number: SREC/4077)

Rich in case study insights, this book provides an overview of city-region building and considers how governance restructuring shapes political, economic, social and cultural landscapes.

Criticism of platforms that do not adhere to the democratic principles outlined above has led to the emergence of an alternative proposition, known as “platform cooperativism”: worker-owned cooperatives based on open-source technologies, which respect ethical working conditions and redistribute to the users the value they have created. The cooperative platforms work beyond the public / private dichotomy, rooted in the "foundational" value of services understood as daily infrastructure, but also as a tool of reconnection (and hybridization) among the existing forms of value creation and distribution. In the following paragraphs we will try to focus the analysis on two "foundational" sectors (mobility and care) highlighting the impact generated by the recent digital transformations and the adoption of a "platform based" service model. We’ll try to compare histories and repertoires within the two polar governance systems, those attributable to Platform Capitalism and those related to the Platform Cooperativism, trying to put in evidence the trends of transformation exposed in the previous paragraph, and highilighting risks and opportunities that the platform model can generate.

Introduction: We aimed to better understand what predicts the capability to ‘live well’ with dementia through identifying the relative contribution of life domains associated with the subjective experience of living well. Method: We analysed data from 1547 individuals with mild-to-moderate dementia in the IDEAL cohort. We generated a ‘living well’ latent factor from measures of quality of life, satisfaction with life and well-being. We used multivariate modelling to identify variables related to living well measures and structural equation modelling to derive latent variables for five life domains and to examine the associations of these domains with living well. Results: All five domains were individually associated with living well. When modelled together, the psychological characteristics and psychological health domain was the only independent predictor of living well (effect size 3.55; 95% CI: 2.93, 4.17), and effect sizes were smaller for physical fitness and physical health (1.23, 95% CI: -.10, 2.58), social capitals, assets and resources (0.67; 95% CI: -.04, 1.38), managing everyday life with dementia (0.33; 95% CI: -0.06, 0.71), and social location (0.08; 95% CI: -2.10, 2.26). Discussion: Psychological resources, and the social, environmental and physical factors that underpin positive psychological states, are potentially important targets for interventions and initiatives that aim to improve the experience of living with dementia.