Fifth Foundational Economy Conference

Fifth Foundational Economy Conference

Foundational Economy, Social Innovation and Public Action

Turin, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Piazza Vincenzo Arbarello, 8

After state retreat and financialization, in the middle of nature and climate emergency, the foundational agenda is about renewal of the reliance systems which deliver the goods and services that keep us safe and civilised. Under rubrics, like radical social innovation and democratic experimentalism, other researchers and practitioners are pursuing similar ends and means. Hence the conference questions: what is distinctive about the foundational approach to innovation and experiment; and what can we and others learn from considering and comparing different approaches? 

If we are to develop shared answer these questions, we must focus on actors, organizations and territories. How can actors drive change when social democracy is exhausted, technocracy is discredited, and political agency is splintered? What organizations, business models and forms of representation are appropriate when corporate business is extractive, and the state lacks resources and expertise? Where are the places and territories where alternatives can be focused, and momentum can be generated as bottom-up initiative meets top-down reform in multi- level systems?   

Our aim is to learn to act at scale with social sensitivity and environmental responsibility in renewing high carbon footprint systems like food, transport and housing. Our hope is to help build new systems like wood economy connecting sequestrating forest to timber frame construction, while tilting the composition of consumption towards responsibility by adequately funding social infrastructure and service systems like health and care. We need debate and discussion because nobody knows how to do all this and, in line with previous conference practice, we will mix researchers and practitioners in most sessions.

The conference will made use of simultaneous translation (Italian-English and English-Italian)