Our vision | Rethinking Poverty

Our vision

Here we set out our thinking and how it has developed over the years, starting with the publication of Barry Knight’s Rethinking Poverty in August 2017 and the first Letchworth retreat a year later, where we looked at the key elements in any vision for a good society and the central part played by place.

Steps towards a better world

By Barry Knight

03 Mar 2022

Written at the outset of the pandemic, #BuildBackBetter showed how being forced to slow down had made people want a different future. Having a profound sense of vulnerability made...

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Transforming markets: why markets need a makeover

By Barry Knight

13 Jan 2022

If Martians landed on Earth tomorrow, they would be surprised by many things, but they would be shocked by an economic system that allows a few billionaires to play...

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Rethinking Poverty: what needs to change?

By Barry Knight

09 Jun 2021

We have the ideas for change It is now more than three years since Rethinking Poverty began to compile resources to support the development of a good society without...

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Big reset needed for a resilient society

By Barry Knight

21 Oct 2020

My favourite history book, The Sleepwalkers, tells the story of how the great powers drifted into the First World War without reason or regard to consequences. This is a...

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Facing the Shadow Within Ourselves to #BuildBackBetter

By Barry Knight

30 Jul 2020

To follow up his article, #BuildBackBetter, Barry Knight is researching practical ways to make this happen. In the first of a series of articles, he examines the role of... Read More

#BuildBackBetter

By Barry Knight

07 Apr 2020

What does it mean to ‘build back better?’ Coronavirus has changed our world forever. Plans made a few weeks ago seem outdated at best or undoable at worst. The... Read More

The society we want: next steps for Rethinking Poverty

By Caroline Hartnell and Barry Knight

07 Jan 2020

What is the society we want? There is widespread agreement across the political spectrum that capitalism is in crisis and we need a new way of doing things. ‘Read the... Read More

Powering a good society

By Barry Knight

03 Jan 2019

Last year was a bad year for anti-poverty campaigners. Poverty rose significantly and yet the government summarily dismissed reports from the UN and JRF. If we are to produce... Read More

45 Degree Change: where bottom up meets top down

By Neal Lawson and Caroline Hartnell

21 Nov 2018

We want to change the world.  Of course that means ending poverty and stopping climate change. The problem is, though, we really don’t know how to do it.  Two... Read More

Creating a new narrative for a good society – lessons from Letchworth

By Rethinking Poverty, Compass, TCPA, University of Hull, UCL

26 Sep 2018

What would a good society look like and how can we achieve it? As described in yesterday’s blog, a small group of people got together in Letchworth Garden City... Read More

What could planning contribute to a good society?

By Rethinking Poverty, Compass, TCPA, University of Hull, UCL

25 Sep 2018

A small group of people got together in Letchworth Garden City on 26 and 27 July. With UK politics in a worse state than perhaps ever before, the aim... Read More

Rethinking Poverty: Towards the Webb Legacy

By Barry Knight

07 Mar 2018

Purpose of this paper This paper has two goals. The first is to learn from reactions to the publication of Rethinking Poverty given during a wide range of public... Read More