Grantham Scholar Ella Hubbard’s project looks at groups who explore ways to live in more just and sustainable ways.
Our current focus on economic growth has put the earth’s systems under increasing pressure. Tackling climate change requires more than shifting consumption habits or developing new technologies, it requires rethinking how we live together. Capitalism has also failed to live up to the promise of providing a good standard of living for everyone, and is instead marked by growing inequality.
There are already grassroots organisations, solidarity economies, social enterprises and a whole range of community organisations are exploring alternatives. My research is interested in groups like this, that are not focused on simply growing the economy, but exploring ways to live in more just and sustainable ways. As well as putting this into practice, they are also articulating different narratives about what a more hopeful future could like.
I use qualitative methods to understand how these groups work. How do they operate in more democratic ways? How do they deal with disagreement and change? What enables them and what constrains them? Finally, I ask how small groups with diverse approaches can transform the economic system more broadly.
Decolonising research guide for PhD researchers. Ella Hubbard and a group of Grantham Scholars create a guide to help decolonise PhD research. Ella and her group were shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Postgraduate Student Diversity’ for their decolonisation work.
Free sustainability webinars. Ella was part of a group who organised the Rewilding: Plant it and They Will Come webinar. Created as part of our ongoing public engagement, it is on of a playlist of Grantham Scholar webinars available on YouTube.
COP26: We must look beyond the conference floor. For COP26, Ella wrote a blog about the need to repoliticise COP. Plus she explained how events occurring outside the main arena are just as important as those within. This blog formed part of our coverage of COP26, which also included interviews with the 7 Grantham Scholars we sent as official observers.
Ella writes a blog called Just Democratic Societies. In this blog Ella writes about topics in the news from the perspective of her academic interests. For example, this post about the GameStop activists: Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor: How GameStop activists took on the stock market.
Find Ella Hubbard on Twitter.
Sze, J. and Hubbard, E. (2022) Rethinking Research Methodologies: Colonial Histories and More Equitable Futures. Doctoral Times. 22. 24-26