FESSUD brings together expertise from many leading universities to look afresh at how the financial system affects the world around us. We need to know what can be done to make the financial system work for society, the economy and the environment and not – as has sometimes been the case – the other way round.
Some central issues FESSUD aims to address are; What is financialisation and how has it impacted on the achievement of specific economic, social, and environmental objectives? What is the nature of the relationship between financialisation and the sustainability of the financial system, economic development and the environment? What lessons can be drawn from the crisis about the nature and impacts of financialisation? What are the requisites of a financial system able to support a process of sustainable development, broadly conceived?
The FESSUD Project runs for 5 years from 01/12/2011 to 30/11/16 and aims to affect policy makers, representatives of the business sector, the social economy sector, the civil society sector, researchers and citizens based in different EU member states and beyond.
The FESSUD project is made up of a team of economists and other social scientists from across Europe and South Africa, working at 14 leading universities and one European non-government organisation.
The project is Co-ordinated by the University of Leeds and is lead by Prof. Malcolm Sawyer. Funding comes from the European Commission, and runs for five years, 2011-2016.
In addition to the work packages, there are many workshops and meetings planned across the project to bring together project members, numerous experts allied to the themes of the project and interested parties. These will facilitate discussion of the research and findings of the project.
The project has huge policy relevance and will engage with all relevant stakeholders.