As the world enters yet another period of unprecedented political and environmental tumult, it is becoming even more clear that our current economic system based on the primacy of profit over the health and wellbeing of people and planet is failing. Throughout history, cities have always been at the forefront of new ways of thinking, and are urban laboratories to test and pilot new concepts. The same holds true today: the degrowth strand of economics, along with policies that focus on healthy people and environments, are being trialled in some Spanish cities, such as Barcelona and Girona. On the other side of the world, it is becoming more widely accepted that GDP is an outdated and inaccurate measurement of the health and wellbeing of a city or nation, and new tools and indexes are being implemented in cities across Japan. Despite their very different cultural contexts, these cities are thriving. Now, the question is: will nation states follow their lead?

Featured guests: 

Dr Angelos Varvarousis, Author & Research Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)

Takehiko Nagumo, Director of the Smart City Institute Japan

Links:

GDP Is the Wrong Tool for Measuring What Matters - Scientific American

This Pioneering Economist Says Our Obsession With Growth Must End - New York Times

'Letter to Nature' by Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau - C40 website

Girona City Council, a pioneering administration in exploring degrowth - Nació Impacte

What is a Smart City anyways? - IMD

Japan has a new way to measure city success – happiness - Cities Today

New Zealand – Implementing the Wellbeing Budget - Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Policy Design for a Wellbeing Economy - JCCPE

If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and Cities 1.5 is supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. You can sign up to the Centre newsletter here. https://thecentre.substack.com/

Cities 1.5 is hosted by David Miller, Managing Director of the C40 Centre and author of the book Solved. It's written and produced by Peggy Whitfield and Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/

Our executive producer is Chiara Morfeo.

Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

Cities 1.5 music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/