The Autonomy Institute
@Autonomy_Inst
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Independent research institute rethinking economies in an age of crisis. Consultancy: helping firms run and evaluate shorter working week trials.
Joined November 2016
🚨 'Forum 2029: Building a living standards policy platform for the UK' 🚨. The UK needs a strong living standards policy programme, but it has yet to emerge 🕙 . Join us for the launch of our seminar series this summer on Weds 4th June 👇 . #forum2029.
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🚨 New report 🚨. @Autonomy_UK analysis shows top 1% are responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions in a single year as the bottom 10% are in *more than two decades* 📈. Find out more, exclusive in the @guardian 👇.
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🚨🚨New paper out today! ‘The Ecological Limits of Work’ 🚨🚨. Using OECD and UN data, it finds: . - If we had to move to within the planet’s 2° limit by adjusting our working time, the UK would need to work as little as 9 hours per week! (THREAD).
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We saw some discussion of cleaners, COVID and 'independence' this evening, so we ran off some charts on their situation. - Paid well below the poverty line. - Mostly female workforce. - The London workforce overwhelmingly rent. - 40 COVID mortalities reported so far.
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📰 NEW FINDINGS. The results of the largest @4Day_Week pilot are in and it has been a huge success for staff and the businesses involved. Revenue has increased .Sick absences have been reduced.92% of businesses are continuing with the it.
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🚨🚨NEW @Survation poll commissioned by Autonomy: Large majority of the public would like the government to explore the introduction of a four-day working week. 🚨🚨. Support- 63%.Oppose 12%.Neither - 20%.Don’t know - 5%.
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🚨NEW STUDY: what would the 32-hour working week in the public sector *really* cost?. 👉It would cost less than 1/5 what the @CPSThinkTank and the @Conservatives have estimated. 👉It would create over 500,000 new full-time equivalent jobs in the sector.
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NEWS 🔊. Having demonstrated research impact at the highest level and worked with multiple governments, Autonomy has been granted institute status 🏛️. We are now 'The Autonomy Institute'.
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⌛️⏳NEW report out today⏳⌛️. Time for Change. A state-subsidised 4-day week in the struggling hospitality, arts and retail sectors can help retain thousands of jobs that could otherwise be lost due to Covid. Read more:.
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💥💥NEW STUDY💥💥. Public Sector as Pioneer: shorter working weeks as the new gold standard. It would create between 300,000 and 500,000 new full-time equivalent jobs in the sector. It would cost around only £9bn (1% of public spending). Write up here:.
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🏫A Four Day Week In Schools🏫. Read about our new report on the issue of working time for teachers and why shorter hours might be the key to retention, recruitment, burn out + more. Including new interviews with staff + an employer in the sector:.
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🚨🚨NEW STUDY: we’ve mapped UK jobs according to potential risk of COVID-19 exposure. We’ve plotted our findings in interactive charts that make up our ‘Jobs at Risk Index’ (JARI). The gender and income findings are particularly stark:.
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🚄🚄NEW REPORT🚄🚄. Claim the Commute. - As we return to our offices, the question as to who pays for commuting should be re-opened. - Autonomy propose a scheme whereby employers meet staff halfway on fares. - New polling included. Explainer vid:.
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The brilliant @AyoCaesar on our recent report 👇👇.
The introduction of a four day working week is an "investment in people," which could avoid mass unemployment in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, contributing editor at Novara Media Ash Sarkar tells Andrew Castle. @AndrewCastle63 | @AyoCaesar
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🗞️💷 New study: Basic income in Wales. - What would its impact be?.- What would it cost?.- How could it be funded?. The most comprehensive study to date, with new basic income model and interviews with a wide variety of groups. With @futuregencymru .
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Daily Mail coverage of our latest research and proposal. A reminder that 57% of Conservative voters back government exploring a 4 day week:
Government should bring in four-day working week but pay workers for five says think tank
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🆕📽️CHANGE THE WEEK. We're excited to have collaborated with award winning director @IanPonsJewell on this animation on the 4 day week! . With special guest voice over from the one and only @stephenfry. Full video at:
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🚨🚨NEW STUDY🚨🚨. A Scottish Four Day Week. Autonomy have initial figures for its implementation in the Scottish public sector. - It could create up to 60,000 new jobs . - it could cost £1.4bn (just 3% of the public sector pay bill in Scotland).
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🚨📰NEW: alongside @LocalTrust and researchers at Northumbria University, Autonomy have produced a detailed plan for the first ever Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilots in England. - 2 years of community consultation.- 2 pilot locations identified.🧵.
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🚨 NEW REPORT: 'Treating Symptoms Not Causes' 🚨 . New groundbreaking evidence shows how basic income can address our public health crisis by saving the NHS tens of billions of pounds 📈 . Read the full report - thread of key findings below 👇 .
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🗣️New polling out today🗣️. 79% of business leaders report being either 'open' or 'very open' to a four day working week. Exclusive in @HuffPost 👇.
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No better way to start the week than with Christine Berry's (@oeufling) latest column on the changing nature of class in the rentier economy . Essential reading 👇.
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🔥NEW study🔥. Paying for Covid: capping excessive salaries to save industries. New figures show the huge potential for wage caps to raise minimum wage, save jobs and reduce inequality. New polling shows public support. 👇 .
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⏰ Our Shorter Working Time Subsidy Scheme (SWTSS) proposes a five-year taper, greatly reducing the state spending involved and enabling a gradual transition to a ‘new normal’ of shorter working weeks. Read the full report 👇.
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🎊🎂We almost forgot - it's our 2 year birthday today! 🎊🎂. This past year we:. - Published the longest report on the shorter working week in existence.- Started our consultancy service.- Made it to onto our first tabloid front page.- Doubled our following on social media.1/2.
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Free eBook in collab with @VersoBooks! . Neoliberalism is dying, but its replacement is not yet born. Including work from:.@AlicePMartin .@Laurie_L_L .@lukehildyard .@meadwaj .@autonomous_coys . more!. #neweconomy.
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🚨🚨 79% of business leaders report being either 'open' or 'very open' to a four day working week 🚨🚨. Our new polling from @Survation 👇
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📨🚫NEW PAPER: The Right to Disconnect. Drawing clear lines between work time and non-work time is essential in the age of remote work. @AngelaRayner: “Alongside the right to flexible working, there must be the right to disconnect." .
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When the furlough scheme ends, the UK can't afford to enter a new era of mass unemployment. Time for Change ⏰ calls for government subsidised reductions in working time: saving jobs & protecting a precarious economy 👇.
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The first official evaluation report has just been released for @WelshGovernment’s groundbreaking ‘Basic Income for Care Leavers’ pilot 🏴🚨 . We’ve pulled together some of the key findings in the thread below 👇 . . #basicincome #ubi
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🚨 New @Autonomy_UK analysis 🚨. A #4dayweek with no loss in pay could help tackle the cost of living crisis, by saving workers thousands of pounds every year in childcare and commuting costs 🏦. Exclusive in the @guardian 👇.
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🎊🎊Today is our 3rd birthday! 🎊🎊. This past year in the UK has been politically and economically tumultuous (to say the least!) . A thread on just some of what we’ve achieved and who we have worked with:.
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🚨NEW PAPER: How should government deploy guaranteed incomes for all?. It needs to be:. Fast, .As universal as possible,.Capable of reaching the most vulnerable. Read the four possible methods in the new paper from: @JoMicheII, Rob Jump and @w_stronge .
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🎙️🎙️Autonomy podcast incoming🎙️🎙️. On the future of work in all its forms. 1st series includes (thread):. @reproutopia on the future of surrogacy and gestation, in conversation with @HelenHester. @CallumCant1 and Autonomy's Julian Siravo discuss the future of meal delivery. .
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👉Daily Mail coverage of the polling, which shows that a majority of Tory voters, and 63% of the general public, support testing a four-day week with no reduction in pay (except for the highest earners).
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🚨At @TWT_NOW this weekend? Be sure to pick up our free 'New Economy Starter Pack' from our stall, ft. some of the heaviest hitters in the game. inc. @graceblakeley @Laurie_L_L @AlicePMartin + more. The old is dying and the new is yet to be policy. Sponsored by @CWUnews! 🚨
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🆕🆕The majority of voters for both major parties support government pursuing a four-day week as a possible policy option. 🆕🆕. @Survation polling for Autonomy.
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🎉🎉Announcing our 2 new hires! . Luiz is an economist versed in heterodox and mainstream theories, with 10 years of experience in banking. Sonia is an experienced mathematician specialising in discrete optimization, focusing on data viz and database manipulation within the ADU
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Today, we've released a report with @futuregencymru showing how Wales can pioneer a 'Shorter Working Week' across its national economy 🏴🕐. At over 100 pages, it's pretty comprehensive! So here's a rundown of its key points 💥. Thread/edefyn 👇.
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📊Announcing our latest digital tool: ASPECTT. 📉ASPECTT is the UK's first job transition database. 📈By unpacking all UK jobs into skills, tech used, expertise, abilities and even tasks on the job, we can offer high-res analysis for multiple uses.🧵.
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📊⚕️NEW:. We’re excited to announce the launch of the Annual Deprivation Index, a new tool to provide the most up-to-date data on deprivation in England’s towns, cities and regions. Brief🧵
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🎉🥳Today is our 5th birthday!. Thanks to all of our supporters, funders, collaborators and friends over the past 5 years: phase one complete - now onto the next!. Here is a video on some of what we've achieved so far:
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🆕🆕NEW REPORT. Going Public: Iceland's Journey to a Shorter Working Week. From 2015-2019, Iceland ran 2 large trials of a reduced working week. They were an overwhelming success. Read @joncstone's write-up in the @Independent: . Report link below.
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✍️In 2021 Autonomy will host Writers in Residence, each of whom will produce monthly pieces on their chosen themes. We're thrilled to welcome our first, @johnpmerrick, who will use the space to discuss deindustrialisation, workplace histories written from below + more. ✍️.
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What would a real New Deal include for the UK today? 🤔. For starters: . - 🟢Huge, green investment across the board (@GreenNewDealUK, @LabGND, etc.). - ⏰ A 32-hour week transition plan (@4Day_Week). - Unconditional welfare for all residents (#UBI). .
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We need a shorter working week - and the public sector could pioneer it. Introducing a 32-hour week could create 500,000 jobs for well under £9bn and massively reduce staff burnout. All the workings in our latest report 👇.
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Today 100 leading economic thinkers signed a letter to government urging fast action, including:. @Miatsf (NEF), @JoMicheII, @premnsikka, @jdportes, @DanielaGabor, @L__Macfarlane, @ProfSteveKeen, @Frances_Coppola, @williamnhutton, @chilledasad100 .
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🎈🎈It's Autonomy's 4 year anniversary today🎈🎈. Here is a big thank you from the team to all of our collaborators from the past 12 months ❤️
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🚨 NEW REPORT – 'Left out in the sun: work and high temperatures in the years ahead' 🚨 . @Autonomy_UK analysis reveals that millions of UK workers will be at risk of dangerous temperatures in coming decades ⚠️. Exclusive in the @Independent👇.
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💾📡NEW collection of papers out today!💾📡. Platforming Equality: Policy Challenges for the Digital Economy. Including contributions from a range of authors and disciplines. @daliagebrial @n_srnck @mckenziewark @nielsvdoorn @StaccoP2P + more!. Link:.
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⚡️Our statement calling for immediate and drastic action by the UK government:. Collaborate with unions.Roll out #BasicIncome .Freeze ALL debt payments.Utilise private hospital/hotels .Re-orientate industry .Provide childcare and pay rises for key roles .
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🛤🚋What is commuting?🚈🚄. It’s not employment, strictly speaking. But it’s not free time either: you have to get to work, after all. How should the costs of this activity be distributed?.
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To avoid a mass wave of redundancies when the furlough scheme ends, the government should consider subsidising working time reduction in the worst hit industries. Read the full set of reccommendations from our 'Time for Change' 🕝 report here 👇.
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🔥We're happy to announce the next post-work conference, in collaboration with CHASE consortium and PhD researchers from Essex Uni. 🔥. Keynote: Kathi Weeks. fantastic lineup of speakers. 27/9 - 28/9. More details and the call for papers in the link:.
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'How do we pay for it? A beginner’s guide to basic income costings' 💵 . Catch up with the latest 'Basic Income Briefing' from @Autonomy_UK and #BasicIncomeConversation . Here's a thread of key points from the report, authored by @_davidfrayne 👇 .
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🚨 NEW! 🚨. 100 more UK companies are set to introduce a #4dayweek, bringing shorter working hours to thousands of workers 👇.
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"It's not so long ago when the norm was a six day week. That was only a few generations ago." .- Chief Economist at the Bank of England talks up the likelihood of a @4Day_Week in the next few decades.
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Our report on UBI in Wales, commissioned by the @futuregencymru office, will be released tomorrow. It will be followed by our director @w_stronge giving evidence live in the Senedd on the findings. Watch this space 👀.
Free school meals for all primary school children in Wales a progressive and very welcome move towards universal benefits. The next one should be a Universal Basic Income. Tomorrow I’ll be releasing a major new report making the case for a UBI in Wales.
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NEW ANALYSIS: care workers and care home mortality. Including:. 1⃣ The gender, ethnicity and working conditions of care workers. 2⃣ We update our map of care home COVID mortalities. 3⃣ Some care homes have never seen a decrease in COVID deaths.
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Wishing you had today off work?. A majority of both Labour *and* Conservative voters think the government should explore the introduction of a four day working week. Take a deeper dive into our recent polling with @Survation 👇.
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📎📎📎NEW report . 🌙🌒WORKING NIGHTS: municipal strategies for nocturnal workers. What are the working conditions of the night and what infrastructure is required to enable worker well-being? We consider 4 kinds of worker. Write-up👇.
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🔭🔭next month: a new collection of papers on the platform economy. Contributors include:. @avilarenata .@philjones7771 .@nielsvdoorn .@n_srnck .@StaccoP2P and @AMUtratel .@daliagebrial .@james_muldoon_ . With @mckenziewark writing an accompanying letter to digital labourers 😎.
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NEW REPORT 🚨 . ‘Politics for sale: analysing twenty-one years of UK political donations’ 💷 . Through a new dataset, we offer unprecedented analysis of UK political donations in recent decades. Coverage in @politicshome 📰 . Thread of key findings 👇 .
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🎉6⃣. Last week marked Autonomy’s 6th year of operation - here is a brief thread on what we’ve achieved in the last 12 months. A big thank you from us to all our monthly subscribers, collaborators, clients and funders. 🧵.
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"A four-day working week will not only improve wellbeing – it could save the planet". Philipp Frey's article (originally for @openDemocracy) has been uploaded by World Economic Forum @wef:.
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A bit of a deeper dive into our report on #BasicIncome in Wales 🏴. 1/ Wales has some of the highest poverty rates in the UK. Nearly 25% of the population falls below the poverty line 👇
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Last night, Director of Research @w_stronge spoke to @BBCTheOneShow about our #UBI trial proposal - and how unconditionality and universality could transform our welfare system for the better 📈. You can read the full report on our website:
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🎂🎂💥It's our first birthday today! A massive thank you to all those who have supported us: our subscribers, our affiliates, @n_srnck and @HelenHester as always and all of those we’ve collaborated with. Now onto phase 2 of our project! 💥🎂🎂
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In a new report with @_wearepossible, we found that reductions in aviation demand could generate a net increase of up to 340,000 jobs 📈. A just transition for aviation workers is possible! ✈️. Coverage in the @Independent👇.
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Great to see basic income being raised in the House of Commons today, following our pilot proposal earlier this week 👇. We need a welfare system fit for the future, that offers people the dignity and security they deserve - it's time to back UBI.
The existing welfare system is overly complicated, can be abused and often lets down those that need it most. UBI must be investigated as a possible alternative.
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🚀🚀A heads up for next week: we're launching our Feminist Futures Programme!. Led by @HelenHester, the FFP will: . Disseminate new and established feminist voices. Collaborate with researchers from different disciplines. Produce new research and policy. FOLLOW: @femfutprog
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Spain is trialling a 4-day week, following local initiatives in Valencia developed in partnership with @Autonomy_UK 🇪🇸. @w_stronge in the @DailyMirror: "other governments and political parties, including those here in the UK, should take note. " 👇.
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🆕COVID unemployment study: regional and age distinctions. We've mapped the spread of unemployment down to the local authority level. Our interactive study allows you to select any of 216 local authority regions to see the age and gender demographics.
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Almost 2 in 3 microworkers in the UK earn less than £4 an hour. Find out about real working conditions in a neglected sector of the UK's online economy in our latest report 💻. Coverage in the @guardian 👇.
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📰NEW: briefing paper on the 'care chasm'. Over 70s population set to increase by more than double the rate of care workers. The contrast is summed up in a single plot:
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🏡🏘️NEW study on occupation, rent and class. Using 2m data entries from 5 years of the Labour Force Survey, we have produced a set of interactive charts which unpack the housing status of different kinds of worker. Coverage here:. (Link in thread).
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The government, @RLong_Bailey and others have now endorsed the idea of a food/essentials service for the population in this #COVIDー19 period. We put our own sketch of what this might look like two days ago. @philjones7771 gives details:.
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Today we can announce that we’re working with @4dayweek_global and @4Day_Week to run the UK’s largest 4 Day Week pilot programme. Organisations can sign up here to get unparalleled support in transitioning to a four-day week:.
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RIP Erik Olin Wright. One of the great theorists of utopian strategy of our time. Read the interview he kindly gave us back in 2017 on 'real utopias' below:.
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Central Jarrow in North East England and Grange, East Finchley in London have been designated as the two pilot locations. Both are part of the Big Local programme, a resident-led, long-term funding programme to improve their communities.
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We've had an incredible response to the UK #4DayWeektrial 📢. We're launching a National Rollout Programme with @4Day_Week - bringing shorter working hours to hundreds more organisations ✅. Always wanted to make the shift? Now's the time 📈.
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🆕Data Archeogram🆕. An archeology of data flows - from the 'connected worker' through the 'connected workplace' + 'connected social factory', to the infrastructures of storage and analysis. Download the Archeogram and read the descriptor here:.
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In 2020 we are upping our game. In the first 6 months we'll be publishing reports on:. ⚡️Electricity consumption and working time.🤝Working time reduction trials in Iceland.🚄Commuting policy. we'll be well underway on our largest research project to date. More soon 🤫.
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🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨 . In the context of high food insecurity and a growing funding gap post-Brexit, new research shows how a basic income could transform the lives of farmers, farmworkers and food producers around the UK 🚜 . Thread of key findings👇 .
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We're so sad to hear of @davidgraeber's passing: he will be sorely missed and his work will live on for many years❤️.
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⚡️New Event ⚡️. @Autonomy_UK are excited to host the launch of 'Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech'! Author @james_muldoon_ will be joined in discussion by @RahelSuess & @leonieclaude. Tuesday 25th Jan, 17:00 GMT 👇.
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🚨Our latest paper is out: . Rise and Grind: microwork and hustle culture in the UK. Plenty of findings (+ survey) including:. - 95% of UK microworkers earn below minimum wage for.this work. - Almost 2 in 3 microworkers earn less than £4 an hour. Read the Guardian piece below👇.
Britain’s hidden online ‘microworkers’ paid less than £4 an hour
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Happy to announce that advisory board member @HelenHester and co-director @w_stronge are writing a primer to post-work! It will be called 'Post-Work: what it is, why it matters and how we get there' (2019).They'll be working with the brilliant @LizaJThompson at Bloomsbury on this.
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💥New Event!💥. We're excited to be hosting an online book launch for @jjoque's 'Revolutionary Mathematics', out with @VersoBooks 🎉. Joined by @yet_so_far and @meadwaj for panel discussion, along with audience Q&A. Thursday 24th Feb, 17:00 GMT 👇.
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We're proud to be co-signatories to this, calling on the UK Government to update flexible working rights to include a #4DayWeek for no loss in pay ✍️. Cutting working hours would improve well-being, boost productivity, and provide valuable extra time for parents and carers 👪.
And here’s the letter we we sent. Please share it far and wide, and let @kevinhollinrake know why you think we should have a four day week as part of our flexible working rights. #4DayWeek #A4DayWeek4Families
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➡️➡️NEW STUDY. COVID-19 unemployment: which regions will feel the bite most + which industries are reporting large-scale layoffs?. New analysis - and new warnings - from Autonomy for the COVID-19 period + its impact on workers across UK regions.
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Key findings 📃. 1. Huge inequality in emissions ✈️. - ernomous gap between the polluting elite and the majority of people, even in developed countries. - it would take 26 years for a low earner to produce as much CO2 as a rich individual does in a year.
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🚨 NEWS 🚨 . @Autonomy_UK are working as the expert partner to the Scottish Government (@scotgov) on their #4DayWeek public sector pilot 🏴 . We'll be supporting a range of different public sector organisations around Scotland to trial shorter working hours 🙌
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🆕 Report:. What if AI was used for the good of workers?. - Using IMF and Goldman Sachs data, we estimate that 8.8 million workers could have a four-day week by 2033, with same pay, should this tech be steered properly.
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🚨🚨Monica Oltra - Vice-President of the Valencian Generalitat - proposes to reduce working hours to 32 hours by 2025 🚨🚨. We're proud to be working with the progressive @generalitat government on a plan for the future of work in the region.
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The social care crisis isn't just a matter of underfunding - it's equally about ownership. In her latest column, Christine Berry (@oeufling) outlines the place of care within the asset economy, and looks towards more democratic alternatives 👇.
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