Imprint: Triarchy Press
Published: 2010

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Extent: 100pp.
Size: 12.6 x 20.3 cm
ISBN: 978-0-9562631-7-9

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Economies of Life: 
Patterns of Health and Wealth 

​Bill Sharpe

A framework for understanding creativity and the arts… and how the arts should be funded

Economies of Life argues cogently that there is a 'default assumption that there is only one economy in our lives - the economy which is the one based on money. Our position is that there are many economies, of which the one based on money is just one, and that they all contribute to the health and sustainability of our shared lives'. To extend this thinking, money is the currency of trade, and art is the currency of experience.

In his collection of five essays, Bill Sharpe uses the principles of ecological thinking to redefine our hitherto narrow understanding of terms like economy and value. The essays consider - with poetic sensitivity and intellectual clarity - what keeps each economy healthy, what sort of wealth each one accumulates and what sort of policies are most supportive of innovation and sustainability in a changing world.

Bill Sharpe and a small group of other IFF members, working with the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, took as the starting point for their inquiry the question 'Can we help people who fund the arts develop better policies if we use ecological thinking to understand how the arts work in society and in the economy?'

The insights resulting from Economies of Life offer an ecologically informed and dynamic framework for understanding creativity, the arts and how the arts should be funded into the future.

The Five Essays

  • Homo ecologicus, Homo economicus, Homo poeticus (Read this essay online)
  • Patterns of Shared Life
  • Art is the Currency of Experience
  • Economies of Life
  • Producing the Future
Economies of Life is beautifully illustrated by artist and IFF member Jennifer Williams.

'[Economies of Life] is a very significant, and hard won, contribution to our collective thinking. I believe the ideas these essays contain open up new perspectives on critical issues way beyond the arts. The notion of multiple currencies being in play, for example, is easy to grasp intuitively and is already proving a useful antidote to conversations that in the context of a recession have become fixated only on money.'
Graham Leicester, Director of IFF

'At last, a fresh perspective on value that reclaims the pivotal role of the arts in the economy of meaning. Thought-provoking reading for policy-makers, grant givers and for artists themselves.'' 
Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO, National Arts Strategies, Washington DC

''Invaluable insights to help us build a shared approach to arts practice, measurement and funding. An essential guide to understanding the dilemma between making money and making meaning.''
Dick Penny, MD, Watershed and Chair, Bristol Old Vic

Read more:

The Author
Chapter 1

By the same author:

Three Horizons

Readership:

Policy advisers, academics and anyone with an interest in arts and society and arts funding.

Related titles:

All Intl. Futures Forum titles

See our other titles in:
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​Managing Possible Futures

Leadership, Innovation & Organisation Management
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People in Society
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Key organisational theories
Complexity Thinking
Cultural Theory
Design and Systems Thinking​
​Triarchy Theory