We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
“Prosperity — in any meaningful sense of the word — transcends material concerns.” — Tim Jackson
Ecological economist, professor, and award-winning playwright Tim Jackson has spent over 20 years delivering a multi-pronged challenge to established economic principles, explaining how we might stop feeding the crises that plague our world and start investing in our collective future.
On Thursday, April 24th, as part of The Architectural League’s ongoing Five Thousand Pound Life initiative (currently focusing on issues of Economics & Investment), Tim Jackson will deliver a talk about the shifting paths for achieving prosperity in our lives. While economic growth was once essential in reaching our current level of development, Jackson argues that continued growth not only sees diminishing returns, but also detracts from our present happiness and future prosperity.
In a world with finite ecological limits, how do we make what we need, get it to the people who need it, and nurture what we already have? Clearly, these issues have profound planetary consequences, but are especially relevant to how we build, use, and adapt our cities. UO readers interested in our Common Shares essay competition will particularly appreciate Jackson’s view of how the sharing economy fits into an overall vision of a more just distribution of work and resources.
Jackson has spent his career at the forefront of research on the relationship between economic growth and the environment. During the ‘90s and ‘00s he worked extensively on the development of “adjusted” national accounts (“green GDP”) at both national and regional levels in the United Kingdom. He has also written extensively on the conceptual and empirical dimensions of the relationship between economic growth, wellbeing, and sustainability. In 2004 he was appointed Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission, where he led a program of work entitled Redefining Prosperity.
A conversation with New York Times journalist Eduardo Porter, author of the Economic Scene column, will follow Jackson’s talk.
The Five Thousand Pound Life
Prosperity for a Finite Planet
Tim Jackson
#5KL
1.5 AIA and New York State CEUs
Time & Place
Thursday, April 24, 2014
7:00 p.m.
Scholastic Auditorium
557 Broadway
Tickets
Tickets are free for Architectural League members; $10 for non-members. League members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets here until 5:00 p.m. on April 24.
Visit the League website for more information about this program and The Five Thousand Pound Life.
The views expressed here are those of the authors only and do not reflect the position of The Architectural League of New York.