Richer Futures Fashioning a new politics

In every area of life, traditional, centralized party politics has been failing and the seeds of a new form of political life are being sown. This is true in housing, health, education, consumption and transport, where public policy is attracting increasing criticism. In an age of social alienation and urban despondency Richer Futures is a timely response to the growing interest in community-based, self-help action. It introduces new forms of communication and decision-making and sets out a programme for a sustainable politics. Contributions from some of the best-known thinkers and writers on contemporary urban, cultural and social policy (and campaigns) in Britain today pay tribute to the ideas and industrious activities of the influential writer and commentator Colin Ward. This uplifting collection of essays looks forward to a new politics of self-management and environmentally aware and sustainable lifestyles. Ken Worpole has written a number of books on urban and cultural policy, and a series of influential reports for Comedia, Demos and the Department of the Environment. Originally published in 1999

Part I: People and Ideas -The Anarchism of Colin Ward * Part II: Growing up absurd - Education on a Human Scale * Education for Participation: Art and the Built Environment * Part III: A Roof Over Your Head - Looking Forward and Looking Back: State Provision and Self-help in Housing Policy * Part IV: Other Landscapes, Other Ways - a Peopled Landscape * The Land is Ours * Poverty Power: Community Empowerment in Developing Countries * Part V: Dig Where You Stand - Plots of Resistance: Food culture and the British * Local, Mutual, Voluntary and Simple: The Power of Local Exchange Trading Schemes * Part VI: Fashioning a New Politics - Path Not (Yet) Taken: The Politics of Sustainability * Index

Ken Worpole has written a number of books on urban and cultural policy, and a series of influential reports for Comedia, Demos and the Department of the Environment.