Michael Jacobs
  • Home
  • Political economy
  • International climate change
  • UK environment and climate
  • Biography
  • Publications
  • Contact

Progressive political economy and British politics

I am Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield, and Professorial Fellow at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI)  My research focuses on what might be meant by a post-neoliberal 'paradigm shift' in economic theory, policy and public discourse.  

I am also co-founder of the 
Economic Change Unit, a small not-for-profit organisation which supports those seeking a fair, sustainable and resilient economy through strategic convening and communication. 

From October 2016 to October 2018 I was Director of the Commission on Economic Justice at the UK Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Comprising leading figures from business, trade unions, civil society and academia, the Commission was a major initiative to examine the challenges facing the UK economy and make practical recommendations for its reform. Over a period of two years it undertook a wide-ranging programme of research, communications and engagement activity aimed at influencing UK policy and debate. The Commission's Interim Report, Time for Change: A New Vision for the British Economy was published in September 2017. Its Final Report, Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy, was published in September 2018.

From 2011-16 I was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy at University College London, where I sought to think through a progressive political response to the economic crisis. Some of the fruits of this work are collected in a book I edited with Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, published by Wiley Blackwell in August 2016. 

I was from 2012-14 Co-Editor (with Tony Wright) of The Political Quarterly, a journal of political thought and analysis which prides itself on being written in plain English.  I wrote a regular blog on the PQ website.

Having spent six years as a Special Adviser in the Labour Government from 2004-10 I have sought to reflect on that experience – both in terms of the political and policy legacy of New Labour and the structures and processes of policy making within government.  Drawing on my experience in the energy and climate change field I wrote an academic paper with Neil Carter on radical policy change, published in Public Administration in 2013.  I gave evidence to the 2012 House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Enquiry on the role of Special Advisers and have contributed to a research project by the Constitution Unit at UCL on this.  

I make occasional appearances as an economic and political commentator in the broadcast media. 

Background

Although much of my writing has been on environmental issues, I’ve written and spoken publicly on and off for thirty years about wider political themes in progressive and social democratic politics.  My 1996 book The Politics of the Real World (Earthscan) put some of it together in the particular context of that period.  In 2003 my Fabian pamphlet Progressive Globalisation, written with Adam Lent and Kevin Watkins, attempted to set out my views on how social democracy could approach the regulation and management of modern capitalism. 

During the mid-1990s, as part of my ESRC research fellowship, I studied the idea of ‘quality of life’ and non-material notions of wellbeing.  My research included a series of focus groups on how people thought about their life satisfaction, particularly the relationship between private and public goods.  This is still of particular interest.  I was and remain interested in the concepts of community and civility and the practice of deliberative democracy.

My earliest serious political essay (in 1989) was on the role of ideology in the public’s understanding of politics, a theme I returned to in an essay in Prospect magazine in 2002 and one which continues to interest me. 

Recent writing and commentary

#
​Podcasts 

Lessons in power: what can the new Labour government learn from the last one?
A SPERI Presents podcast 
July 2024

Books, reports, essays, lectures and papers

​After Neoliberalism: Economic Policy and Politics in the Polycrisis
Political Quarterly  2 February 2024

Labour, left and right:
On party positioning and policy reasoning

(with Andrew Hindmoor)
Peer-reviewed paper
 
British Journal of Politics and International Relations  June 2022

Green growth, degrowth or post-growth? Towards a synthetic understanding of the growth debate
(with Xhulia Likaj and Thomas Fricke)

Forum for a New Economy, 18 May 2022

Beyond Growth:
Towards a New Economic Approach

Report of the Advisory Group to the OECD Secretary-General
OECD  September 2020

Ideas and Power: Reflections on Politics, Environmental Crisis and
Economic Paradigm Shifts

Inaugural Lecture
SPERI, University of Sheffield
 
22 May 2019

​Prosperity and Justice:
A Plan for the New Economy

The Final Report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice
IPPR / Polity (book) September 2018

Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
co-edited with Mariana Mazzucato
Wiley Blackwell (book) August 2016

Paradigm shifts in economic
theory and policy 

(with Laurie Laybourn-Langton)
Intereconomics  May-June 2018

Time for Change:
A New Vision for the British Economy

The Interim Report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice
IPPR  September 2017​

Articles

​Labour’s economic agenda has all the right ideas – but it’s a race against time to make it work  Guardian  2 January 2025

Down the drain
Inside Story, 4 May 2024

The world economy is in crisis again. If we look back 80 years we might be able to fix it
Guardian  4 January 2024

From net zero to rock bottom
Inside Story  ​​25 September 2023

A Keir Starmer government might be more radical than you think
Guardian, 4 January 2022

Rishi Redux
Inside Story, 26 October 2022
​

Liz Truss dreams of growth - but even if she pulls it off, it won't help Britain
Guardian, 10 October 2022

The Truss effect
Inside Story, 8 October 2022

​Trouble at the OECD
Inside Story, 29 September 2022

​This 'mini-Budget' is a naked exercise in redistributing wealth upwards
Guardian, 23 September 2022

​Who is Liz Truss - and why?
Inside Story, 5 September 2022

Thatcherite mythology: eight Tory leadership candidates in search of an economic policy 
LSE British Politics and Policy blog, 13 July 2022

​The latest Bank of England rate rise won't do much to tackle inflation - here's what could work
The Conversation, 17 June 2022

Have we reached the limits to growth?
(with Xhulia Likaj)
Project Syndicate, 18 May 2022

Green growth, degrowth or post-growth? Towards a synthetic understanding of the growth debate
(with Xhulia Likaj and Thomas Fricke)
Forum for a New Economy, 18 May 2022

Sustainable prosperity in an uncertain future: A shared agenda between green growth and degrowth
(with Jonathan Barth)
Heinrich Boell Stiftung, 18 April 2022

Economists' Letter to the OECD Secretary-General on the New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiative
Published 10 April 2022

Rishi Sunak and the politics of taxation
SPERI blog, 5 April 2022

Green capitalists and green anti-capitalists are on the same side - for now
Political Quarterly blog, 14 February 2022
​
The case for a UK windfall tax on oil and gas giants is unanswerable
Guardian  11 February 2022

Why cynicism over COP26 is misplaced
Political Quarterly blog, 7 February 2022

In an act of brazen treachery, Rishi Sunak is sabotaging Johnson's policies
Guardian  ​​22 December 2021

​Between the idea and the reality
Inside Story  ​​14 October 2021

​Western economies can't return to 'business as usual' after the pandemic
Guardian  ​31 August 2021

Keir Starmer must lean right to win? History suggests otherwise (with Andrew Hindmoor)  Guardian  ​5 May 2021

Taxes will have to rise at some point,
but right now we need the government to spend, spend, spend

Independent  ​19 July 2020

The economic disaster caused by the coronavirus will bring a record recession - we must act now
 
Independent  ​7 May 2020

Recovering better: a green, equitable and resilient recovery from coronavirus
​Briefing note for European Climate Foundation
30 March 2020
​
​
​Capitalism is in crisis. And we cannot get out of it by carrying on as before 
​
Guardian  8 November 2019

Compromise seems to be the hardest word
SPERI blog  11 April 2019

Hard-wiring the economy for justice
Renewal interview  5 October 2018

Corporate fat cats are abusing their power
​UnHerd  28 September 2018
​

A more active state is essential to a new economy
New Statesman  5 September 2018
​
​Industrial strategy: steering structural change in the UK economy
(with Izzy Hatfield, Loren King, Luke Raikes and Alfie Stirling)
IPPR Commission on Economic Justice
discussion paper
  November 2017


​Why this white paper on industrial ​strategy is good news (mostly)
Guardian  27 November 2017

Changing direction: how industrial strategy can help remake the UK economy
IPPR and PrimeEconomics blog 17 November 2017

Why has the Bank of England raised interest rates? It ran out of options
Guardian  2 November 2017

Time for a paradigm shift
PrimeEconomics blog  29 October 2017

Moving beyond neoliberalism:
an assessment of the economic systems
change movement in the UK 

(with Laurie Laybourn-Langton)
Friends Provident Foundation report
October 2017

The industrial strategy acknowledges a fundamental truth about growth
New Statesman  23 January 2017

​Out of shape: taking the pulse of the UK economy (with Alfie Stirling and Catherine Colebrook)
Institute for Public Policy Research report 
November 2016


If Theresa May is serious about inequality she'll ditch Osbornomics 
(with Mariana Mazzucato)
Guardian  19 July 2016

A new politics: why we need collaboration between the Greens and Labour
Resurgence  Nov-Dec 2013
(also published here)

Making sense of Snowden
Political Quarterly blog  17 October 2013

Reflections on One Nation Labour
Political Quarterly blog  22 September 2013

Housing, places and people: Labour and the fifth wave of social environmentalism
Essay in Green Social Democracy: Better Homes in Better Places, ed Matthew Spencer et al,
Green Alliance, September 2013

Explaining radical policy change: the case of climate change and energy policy under the British Labour Government 2006-10 (with Neil Carter)
Public Administration  August 2013

Tax and spending (again)
Political Quarterly blog 8 May 2013 and
LSE Politics and Policy blog 14 May 2013

Beyond the social market: rethinking capitalism and public policy
Political Quarterly  March 2013

Gove is all around: exams, public services and the EU single market
  Political Quarterly blog  12 February 2013

Green social democracy
Fabian Review  Winter 2012  (reprinted by the New Statesman  18 January 2013)

Healthy tensions in the machinery of power
Letter to The Times  17 January 2013 (reprinted here)

The politics of place and the greening of Labour
In One Nation Labour - Debating the Future ed Jon Cruddas, Labour List e-book  January 2013 (and Labour List  12 November 2012)

Atheism, faith and promoting ethical values
Letter in The Guardian  19 December 2012

Politics and the planet
Political Quarterly Commentary
December 2012  (reprinted here)

The problem at No 10 
Political Quarterly blog  21 November 2012

Obama's victory: non-lessons for Britain
Political Quarterly blog  7 November 2012

The Coalition's energy policy
Guardian and Political Quarterly blog 
18 October 2012

Economic prospects
Political Quarterly blog  11 October 2012

Ed Miliband's bravura performance
Political Quarterly blog  4 October 2012

Special advisers: part of the constitution The House Magazine  12 July 2012  (reprinted here)

Oral and written evidence given to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Enquiry on the role of Special Advisers
May / June 2012

Leveson needed on financial crash
Letter in The Times  31 May 2012  (reprinted here)

Wellbeing: the challenge for Labour
Essay in 'The practical politics of wellbeing'
New Economics Foundation pamphlet
  November 2011


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.