Transnational Institute

Hilary Wainwright

Contact details:

Email: wainwright.hilary [at googlemail.com

Long bio:

hilarywainwright long bio.pdf

Location:

United Kingdom

See map: Google Maps

Hilary Wainwright

Research Director of the TNI New Politics programme

Hilary Wainwright is a leading researcher and writer on the emergence of new forms of democratic accountability within parties, movements and the state. She is the driving force and editor behind Red Pepper, a popular British new left magazine, and has documented countless examples of resurgent democratic movements from Brazil to Britain and the lessons they provide for progressive politics.

As well as TNI fellow, she is also Senior Research Associate at the International Centre for Participation Studies at the Department for Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK and previously research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. She has also been a visiting
Professor and Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles; Havens Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Todai University, Tokyo. Her books include Reclaim the State: Adventures in Popular Democracy (Verso/TNI, 2003) and Arguments for a New Left: Answering the Free Market Right (Blackwell, 1993).

Wainwright founded the Popular Planning Unit of the Greater London Council during the Thatcher years, and was convenor of the new economics working group of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly from 1989 to 1994.

Areas of expertise:

New forms of political agency; Redefining the State; participatory democracy and budgeting; British Politics; Political parties; Social Movements; Civil Society; Social Forums; Brazil under Lula; Venezuela under Chavez; European Left; Trade Unions

Honours/Awards:

Honorary Fellow in Sociology at Manchester University, UK

Languages spoken:

English

Media experience:

Hilary has written for The Guardian, The Nation, New Statesman, Open Democracy, Carta, Il Manifesto and El Viejo Topo, as well as appearing as a commentator on BBC1, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.

Selected publications:

Reclaim the State

Public service reform - But not as we know it!

Reclaim the State

Arguments for a new left

Recent content by Hilary Wainwright

What are the promising new models of democratic participation? (5 Feb 2010)

The institutions that are supposed to reproduce daily life are incapable of acting on behalf of the people any more, so we need to produce our own institutional alternatives based on micro-experiments and universal values.

Rocking the system (4 Feb 2010)

A campaign is mounting for the remutualisation of Northern Rock, the bank whose collapse heralded the financial crisis. A community-owned bank would serve wider social needs, rather than private profits.

Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge launched (19 Nov 2009)

An international coalition has launched Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge as a response to the recent agreement of the European Commission on the “protection” of Internet access, brought under the pressure of the lobbies of the culture industry.

Reclaim the State (27 Oct 2009)

Reclaim the State sets out on a journey from Brazil to Britain to discover how people are creating new, stronger forms of democracy. The book shows that the foundations for new political directions for deepening democracy already exist, and provides imaginative and practical tools for building on them.

A real green deal (9 Oct 2009)

35 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace company formulated an ‘alternative corporate plan’ to convert military production to socially useful and environmentally desirable purposes. What are the lessons for greening the world economy today?

Now to complete the democratic revolution (28 May 2009)

The current anger in Britain over MPs' misuse of public money is more than outrage at the pathetic greed of public representatives. It is a fury over a deep-seated failure of public control of public money, that should now be the basis of a movement to complete the unfinished struggle for popular sovereignty

Key to economic recovery lies in unlocking workers' creativity (5 May 2009)

The future of our public services will be as central to the next election as the future of the economy. The experience of Newcastle City Council shows that most political party leaders are wrong when they believe the solution lies in further competition and outsourcing.

Public spending, public control (5 May 2009)

Local experiments in public reform are more democratic and cost-effective than the government's centralised bailouts

There is an alternative (2 Apr 2009)

Socialism's all the rage. "We Are All Socialists Now," Newsweek declares. As the right wing tells it, we're already living in the USSA. But what do self-identified socialists (and their progressive friends) have to say about the global economic crisis?

Public service reform … but not as we know it! (18 Mar 2009)

The need for convincing alternatives to market-led politics is urgent, especially as the government continues to defer to the financial markets rather than to challenge them.