Initiatives that are in progress, right now.
Folk tales often grow from periods of great hardship. The tale of Hansel and Gretel, though first written down much later, is thought to stem from the onset of the medieval cold period, known as the Little Ice Age and the Great Famine in Europe of the early...
Lindsay Mackie and Andrew Simms ask why we're not using proven alternatives to 'big' outsourcing News last week that Capita was in difficulties led to a near 50 percent drop in its share price as anxiety about its stability surged following the disclosure of net debts...
‘Back with the fairies’, by David Boyle, charts the strange revival of beliefs in fairies, asks in an age of irrational politics what might be driving the phenomenon, and what it might mean about seeking both escape and connections in the modern world. His...
It is a strange thing, vouchsafed to few of us, to find ourselves vindicated by the National Audit Office of all people. Yet I have been. I have explained here and elsewhere that the reason why the Govia Thameslink and Southern rail franchise had been such a disaster...
The magician’s house, by Jan Dean, a chilly hearth-side story for the world we live in about a promise, begins a new, monthly feature from our project on modern folk tales for troubling times The magician’s house was first published in our collection of tales 'There...
One special day – a cautionary Christmas tale by Bill McGuire is a short, seasonal special for our project on modern folk tales for troubling times Ivy collapsed into the overstuffed armchair and let out an enormous sigh. It was so good to be able to relax after all...
Marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's challenge to the established church, the New Weather Institute and campaign group Rethinking Economics, with input from a wide range of economists, academics and concerned citizens, challenged the mainstream teaching of...
“It takes a civilized man,” said George Bernard Shaw, “to be deeply moved by statistics.” The whole edifice of Fabian statistics, outcomes, learnings, KPIs and so on were built on those foundations. Shaw was not wrong. You do need an imagination to imagine the picture...
Systemic corporate failures are leaving our glass of milk half empty... There's a milk and butter shortage threatened, who would have thought it? And it's accompanied by the usual, willfully ignorant media jokes about the French croissant becoming a rarity. Morrisons...
Knock Twice: is a new collection of 25 modern folk tales for troubling times by a group of leading scientists, economists, environmentalists and policy experts and activists. Realising the limits of facts and policy alone to change the world, an innovative group of...