The Foundational Economy

Foundational Economy Research

Foundational Economy Research (FERL) is a not-for-profit action-research agency based in the UK, created by founding members of the Foundational Economy Collective to work on the ground for foundational betterment. We produce analysis that reframes problems and offers practical ways of improving the liveability of households, developing places in fair and sustainable ways, and strengthening the supply of foundational economy goods and services for users and producers.

We have produced reports for government, third-sector organisations, and trade bodies on a variety of issues, including planning and small-town high streets, affordable rents and liveability in social housing, economic development in hinterland economies, sustainable tourism, and wood economies. Much, but not all, of this work has been done in Wales, where our aim is to develop long-term partnerships, as we have with social enterprises in the slate valleys and with Woodknowledge Wales. In these cases, we are not simply report writers but partners in change.

Evidence and argument scattered across our diverse output in books and reports are synthesised in our Grey Skies Thinking notes. A crisis of provisioning in the UK and Europe has led to the precarisation of “fallen below” groups and to a cultural turn in politics that benefits insurgent reactionary parties. The political response needs to combine several elements: a foundational pivot by centrist governments, coming under pressure from social movements, together with vertical and horizontal alliances that promote local and sectoral experimentation.

To find out more about FERL, you can visit the website here and get in contact with the principals, Colin Haslam (haslams_all@hotmail.com) and Karel Williams (williamskarel@hotmail.com).

Below some recent research reports by FERL:

Provision of on-market essentials:

Provision of essential services: 

Hinterland economic development:

The urban fabric:

Welsh Government Policy: