The CombOver

The 'Alternative Economists', Mary McManus, Tiziana O'Hara, Bridget Meehan and Lee Robb return for part 2 of the New Economy NI series, to address the need for new narratives around the economy - and community - as well as some of the obstacles ('glass ceilings') the movement faces.

Visit our YouTube channel for the video version.

Find out more here: https://thecombination.org.uk/

The old dominant extractive, neoliberal political economic model has crashed; grassroots economic democracy must be at the heart of the new; and a major transition in that direction may just be under way - including here in Northern Ireland. Maurice Macartney talks to 'the Alternative Economists', Mary McManus, Tiziana O'Hara, Bridget Meehan and Lee Robb about community wealth building, cooperatives, mutual banking, repair cafés and more, in this podcast version of the Combination film, featuring extracts from an Imagine Festival event from March 2021.

For the video: https://bit.ly/new-economy-ni-1

For more information: https://thecombination.org.uk/

To mark Cooperatives Fortnight (22 June - 5 July) Maurice talks to Tiziana O'Hara of Cooperative Alternatives and Ellie Perrin, who is writing a PhD thesis on this episode's topic: the cooperative movement in Northern Ireland.

Visit thecombination.org.uk for more on this subject!

In episode 8 Maurice talks to Tanya Jones (https://www.greenlassie.com/) about her research on the concept of restorative justice, how that approach relates to the issue of climate injustice, and how the present crisis – the episode was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown – will provide both challenges and opportunities for those who simply want to return us to ‘business as usual’ as fast as possible, but also for those who are determined to build a more equitable, sustainable, democratic, and just political and economic system.

A special edition of the CombOver for May Day 2020, in which Maurice looks at the mechanisms driving up inequality and calls for us to combine to turn the gearing of the 'crank economy' from the vertical to the horizontal - to build a new common-wealth.

Music by makisoundscape (from the Strangford Suite)

In the fourth and final part of this mini-series, Maurice argues that if we are to move towards democracy (and we haven't got there yet), what's generally unthinkingly called 'the market' can no longer be given the whip hand (with all the structural violence that implies); the Prince can have no greater standing than the pauper, the billionaire than the bar-staff; and we need to build it to last. That is, we need to pursue all the other values in this quartet - equality, nonviolence and sustainability - to move towards democracy.

The third of the four quarters sees Maurice back in the rather blustery woods (apologies for the sound quality) with his dog Salvo, thinking about how we could get a real, bodily sense of the sheer scale of the inequalities generated by our dominant economic model - and thus the need for a politics of equality.

In the second of the four 'Quarters' recorded under lockdown, Maurice looks at the principle of nonviolence, which, he argues, underpins the other core values discussed in this mini-series.

Like others, during the unfolding coronavirus crisis, we find ourselves confined to quarters here at the Combination. So we can’t interview people face to face. But Maurice has taken the opportunity of his daily exercise allowance (and dog-walking time) to record some reflections on a quartet of values that shape his thinking.

The result is this series of four episodes, each confined to a quarter of an hour long (of course), looking in turn at sustainability, nonviolence, equality and democracy.

We at the Combination wish you all the best: stay safe!

In Episode 2 of The Combover, Maurice talks to Tanya Jones about her experience of campaigning on Fracking in Fermanagh, her involvement with Extinction Rebellion in Scotland, and about the role of the courts in seeking climate justice.