The Foundational Economy

The book has a special place in foundational thinking because it allows members of the foundational collective to make a long-form argument for extending into new areas or rethinking major problems. Thus, one important source for current developments in foundational thinking is the Manchester Capitalism series of books, all published by Manchester University Press and edited by Julie Froud and Karel Williams.

Since 2014, some 17 affordably priced paperbacks have been published in the Manchester Capitalism series, and all are listed on and available from the MUP website.

Since 2023, we have had Justin O’Connor in Culture Is Not an Industry, arguing against instrumental views of culture as a source of jobs and economic growth, and Kevin Morgan in Serving the Public, analysing the conditions of success and failure in good-food experiments in schools, prisons, and hospitals. The FERL team, in When Nothing Works, introduced liveability and residual income, while their Murky Water book tackles the issue that, when privatisation has failed, public ownership is a necessary but not sufficient part of the answer.

• Calafati, L., Froud, J., Haslam, C., Johal, S. and Williams, K. (2025) Murky Water: Challenging an Unsustainable System. 
• Morgan, K. (2025) Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons. 
• O’Connor, J. (2024) Culture Is Not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good. 
• Calafati, L., Froud, J., Haslam, C., Johal, S. and Williams, K. (2023) When Nothing Works. 

Manchester University Press also published the Collective’s Foundational Economy in 2018 with a second edition including a new preface in 2022. The book is available in 5 languages as listed below: 

• Foundational Economy Collective (2022/2018) Foundational Economy: The Infrastructure of Everyday Life. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 
• Froud, J. and Williams, K. (eds.) (2021) Yaşamın Temel Ekonomisi: Günlük Yaşamın Altyapısı. Ankara: İmge Kitabevi Yayınları. 
• Foundational Economy Collective (2020) Economia Fundamental: As Infraestruturas do Quotidiano. Lisbon: Actual Editora. 
• Foundational Economy Collective (2019) Die Ökonomie des Alltagslebens: Für eine Neue Infrastrukturpolitik. Berlin: Suhrkamp. 
• Collettivo per l’Economia Fondamentale (2019) L’Economia Fondamentale: Infrastruttura della Vita Quotidiana. Turin: Einaudi. 

Other books include: 

• Barbera, F., Dagnes, J., Salento, A. and Spina, F. (2016) Il Capitale Quotidiano: Un Manifesto per l’Economia Fondamentale. Rome: Donzelli.
• Dagnes, J. and Salento, A. (eds.) (2022) Prima i Fondamentali: L’Economia della Vita Quotidiana tra Profitto e Benessere. Milan: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
• Barbera, F. and Jones, I.R. (eds.) (2022) The Foundational Economy and Citizenship: Comparative Perspectives on Civil Repair. Bristol: Policy Press.