Thursday, May 12, 2011

THE ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS (film, 80 minutes) – on realistic solutions to our most serious crises.

8pm  Arts Centre, Devizes Road  Tel 01793 614837  £5 (£4)

Presented in association with Swindon Film Society and Swindon Climate Action Network

Five years in the making,The Economics of Happiness is a global tour-de-force that draws inspiration from initiatives around the world- urban gardens in Detroit, Transition Towns in England, hands-on education in Japan, community farming in India, cultural preservation in Peru - illustrating economic localisation at work, to help repair our damaged ecosystems, our societies, and ourselves. - It features acclaimed environmentalists, scholars, and authors, including Vandana Shiva, Zac Goldsmith, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Juliet Schor, Richard Heinberg, Helena Norberg-Hodge, and Bhutanese film director Khyentse Norbu.

The film shows that millions of people are already engaged in building a better world; that small scale initiatives are happening on a large scale; and that they are the foundations of an economics of happiness.

This follows a talk:

RICHARD WILKINSON & KATE PICKETT - on why equality is better for everyone.

6.30pm Arts Centre, Devizes Road  Tel 01793 614837  £6 (£5)

What does money do best? How much health, wellbeing, and happiness can we buy? What is community? What is equality? Does it matter who you know or what you know? What do you know, about social policies?

This illustrated talk, by the authors of the ground-breaking book The Spirit Level, will look at the changing social and political landscape and show how equality has a greater bearing than wealth on society’s well being.

The Spirit Level was championed by David Cameron in his Hugo Young Lecture last year; and Ken Livingstone chose it as his book of the year.

Richard Wilkinson, an author whose work has been translated and published in ten languages, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham and Honorary Professor at University College London.

Kate Pickett, co-author, has been assistant Professor at the University of Chicago and is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of York.

Kate and Richard have founded The Equality Trust. See www.equalitytrust.org.uk

Double ticket for Wilkinson & Pickett and The Economics of Happiness  £9