RESUMÉ

Tim Jackson is an ecological economist and writer. Since 2016 he has been Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). CUSP is a multidisciplinary research centre which aims to understand the economic, social and political dimensions of sustainable prosperity. Its guiding vision for prosperity is one in which people everywhere have the capability to flourish as human beings—within the ecological and resource constraints of a finite planet.

Tim has been at the forefront of international debates on sustainability for three decades and has worked closely with the UK Government, the United Nations, the European Commission, numerous NGOs, private companies and foundations to bring economic and social science research into sustainability. During five years at the Stockholm Environment Institute in the early 1990s, he pioneered the concept of preventative environmental management—a core principle of the circular economy—outlined in his 1996 book Material Concerns: Pollution Profit and Quality of life. From 2004 to 2011 he was Economics Commissioner for the UK Sustainable Development Commission where his work culminated in the publication of his controversial and ground-breaking book Prosperity without Growth (2009/2017) which has subsequently been translated into twenty foreign languages. It was named as a Financial Times ‘book of the year’ in 2010 and UnHerd’s economics book of the decade in 2019. In 2016, Tim was awarded the Hillary Laureate for exceptional international leadership in sustainability. His book Post Growth—life after capitalism (Polity Press, 2021) won the 2022 Eric Zencey Prize for Economics. His latest book The Care Economy is to be published in February 2025.

Tim holds degrees in mathematics (MA, Cambridge), philosophy (MA, Uni Western Ontario) and physics (PhD, St Andrews). He also holds honorary degrees at the University of Brighton in the UK and the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Belgian Royal Academy of Science. In addition to his academic work, he is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.

Research

From 2013 to January 2017, Tim held a Professorial Research Fellowship on Prosperity and Sustainability in the Green Economy (PASSAGE). From 2010 to 2014 he was Director of the Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG), which aimed to develop evidence-based advice to policy makers about realistic strategies to encourage more sustainable lifestyles. From 2006 to 2011 he was Director of the ESRC Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE), a novel cross-disciplinary institution at the time, set out to unravel the complex links between lifestyles, values and the environment. Following his Professorial Research Fellowship on the Social Psychology of Sustainable Consumption (2003–2005), Tim published his widely cited report Motivating Sustainable Consumption. A respective Earthscan ‘Reader’ in Sustainable Consumption was issued in 2006. From 1995 to 2000 Tim held an EPSRC fellowship on the Thermodynamics of Clean Technologies. During five years at the Stockholm Environment Institute in the early 1990s, he pioneered the concept of preventative environmental management—a core principle of the circular economy framework—outlined in his 1996 book Material Concerns: Pollution Profit and Quality of life.

Since 2010, Tim has been engaged in ambitious collaborative projects to build a new ecological macroeconomics. He and Prof Peter Victor from York University, Canada are developing the conceptual basis for an economy in which stability no longer depends on relentless consumption growth.

Advisor

Tim has served in an advisory capacity for numerous Government departments, Intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, private sector companies, and delivery agencies. From 2004 to 2011, Tim was Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), where he led the Commission’s work on redefining prosperity, sat on the UK Government’s Sustainable Consumption Roundtable and contributed to the UK’s 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy. His work for the SDC culminated in the publication of his groundbreaking book Prosperity without Growth, since re-published in a substantially revised and updated edition. In 2016, Tim was awarded the Hillary Laureate in recognition of his international leadership on sustainability. Since 2018, he is Commissioner on the UK Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.

Playwriting

Tim’s first love was playwriting and he sold his first radio play to the BBC while he was still a student. Since then he has achieved numerous radio writing credits for the Radio 4, Radio 3 and BBC World and won several prizes and awards for his work. His plays includes love stories, historical dramas, and a 30 episode environmental thriller. Through drama Tim has helped bring scientific controversies to a wider audience. He has also explored the life and work of scientists, artists, musicians and writers.

Speaking engagements

Tim has given more than 500 international keynote presentations and appears regularly in the UK and international media. Video and audio recordings from his talks and interviews may be found on the talks & interviews page.