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About William Davies

William Davies is Academic Director of The Centre for Mutual and Employee-Owned Business, University of Oxford. His weblog is www.potlatch.org.uk.

Articles by William Davies

Getting economists to wake up to reality

William Davies 20 October 2012

The Uneconomics series challenged the power of economists, inviting diverse perspectives from disciplines whose work on the economy has been increasingly recognised post-crash. This reflection by the editor ends the nine month series.

'Central banks should admit their mistakes': an interview with the Bank of England's Andy Haldane

WILLIAM DAVIES and ANDY HALDANE

Andy Haldane, Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, has been hailed as a new type of policy expert and intellectual. In this interview, for our Uneconomics series, he sets out his vision for the future of economics and economic policy-making. It is a future where central banks are humble, "listen as often as they speak", and own up to their mistakes

"With friends like these..." on Romney's comments about Israel

DAVID ALPHER

Mitt Romney's efforts to establish credentials in statesmanship can hardly be called successful. Not only did he deeply offend the Palestinian people; he even managed to reinforce a negative Jewish stereotype

What now for the Philippines?

MAITREYA BUDDHA SAMANTARAY

The New People's Army has intensified its activities in recent months. But without the support of Communist governments in China and Vietnam, the NPA is having to turn to local peoples and businesses

Mass arrests outside the Olympic opening ceremony

KERRY-ANNE MENDOZA

London 2012's opening ceremony paid tribute to Britain's rich history of political dissent. But outside the Olympic village, a group of peaceful cyclists was being kettled by police. One of the 182 arrested gives her eye-witness account

Impunity returns to Peru

JO-MARIE BURT

A Peruvian judge has ruled that incidents in a massacre in 1995 did not constitute ‘crimes against humanity’. This and his accompanying comments are a major step away from human rights, and towards the ‘institutionalised impunity’ the country has suffered from before

The BBC and the future of broadcasting: special report

DAN HANCOX

The first report from a scintillating ourBeeb discussion with Claire Enders, Britain's leading media analyst, finds the BBC at a digital crossroads, but holding up remarkably well

The great unmentionable in disability politics

RAHILA GUPTA

The grief of those who care for people with a disability can be seen as a betrayal of the Cause.  While valuing disability, can’t we mourn the loss of ability too?

'Central banks should admit their mistakes': an interview with the Bank of England's Andy Haldane

WILLIAM DAVIES

Andy Haldane, Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, has been hailed as a new type of policy expert and intellectual. In this interview, for our Uneconomics series, he sets out his vision for the future of economics and economic policy-making. It is a future where central banks are humble, "listen as often as they speak", and own up to their mistakes

'Central banks should admit their mistakes': an interview with the Bank of England's Andy Haldane

WILLIAM DAVIES and ANDY HALDANE

Andy Haldane, Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, has been hailed as a new type of policy expert and intellectual. In this interview, for our Uneconomics series, he sets out his vision for the future of economics and economic policy-making. It is a future where central banks are humble, "listen as often as they speak", and own up to their mistakes

Image © Bank of England, some rights reserved

The great unmentionable in disability politics

RAHILA GUPTA

The grief of those who care for people with a disability can be seen as a betrayal of the Cause.  While valuing disability, can’t we mourn the loss of ability too?

The fire and the Games: confronting corporate values

ANTHONY BARNETT

Behind the eccentricity and humour of London's opening ceremony lay a radical challenge to neoliberalism and corporate control

 

NRA proves that guns actually save lives

SETH REDNISS

... and Obama and Romney, in a rare show of bipartisanship, rally in silence around the real victims of the Aurora tragedy: concerned gun owners

The Games have begun, an opportunity missed

AMAL DE CHICKERA

The opening ceremony of the games was an opportunity to challenge some of the more dominant, ugly trends that have taken over the Olympics. Acknowledgement of the injustice of colonialism would have gone a long way in setting the tone

An intelligent industrial policy: and pigs might fly?

William Davies 29 June 2012

The call for a return to an ‘active industrial policy’ has failed to present a modern challenge to finance capitalism. For this argument to ring true in the 21st century, it must first consider with what type of knowledge it is now engaged. How can policy itself escape the pitfalls of nostalgia, lobbying and the bailout mentality? 

Taking risks with the economy? It's time to throw caution to the wind

William Davies 28 April 2012

What do British banks and prisons have in common? They are both part of systems designed to manage risks and that are now part of the problem. We need to break the cycle by opening up policy-making to more experimental, less familiar forms of intervention and regulation. What is there to lose, that the financial status quo isn't already losing? There may be a lesson here for the rest of the West as well.

Uneconomics: a challenge to the power of the economics profession

William Davies 9 February 2012
The fall-out from the financial crash is continuing to destroy lives around the globe, yet the power of economists is being entrenched, rather than questioned. In this debate, we bring together anthropologists, sociologists, historians and heterodox economists to ask and answer the big questions.

Happy now? As Britain prepares to measure 'wellbeing', we conclude our happiness debate

William Davies 11 November 2011
As Britain publishes its first 'national wellbeing indicators', OurKingdom wraps up our debate on happiness. Here, the editor of the debate looks back on the series of articles inspired by the growing interest in happiness shown by politicians, economists, statisticians and psychologists.

Hack-gate: the latest cultural contradiction of British conservatism?

William Davies 7 July 2011
The Murdoch-owned British Sunday tabloid, 'News of the World', has sunk deeper into an ongoing hacking scandal. Given that the right-wing tabloid press is a bastion of the British conservative establishment, how will the scandal affect the character of UK conservatism?

National wellbeing: the ‘personalisation of the public interest’?

William Davies 19 June 2011
Democratic states want to prove their success to their citizens and one way to do this is to incorporate the feedback from them about their 'wellbeing'. Is personalised government about making citizens happy or pleasing the state?

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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