FESSUD

Description

FESSUD is a multidisciplinary, pluralistic project which aims to forge alliances across the social sciences, so as to understand how finance can better serve economic, social and environmental needs.

The FESSUD Project ran for 5 years from 2011 to 2016 and aimed 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 project was 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. It was co-ordinated by the University of Leeds and lead by Professor Malcolm Sawyer. Funding came from the European Commission.

FESSUD brought 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 aimed to address were: 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 key features of FESSUD

• The Financialisation, Economy, Society and Sustainable Development (FESSUD) project explores the nature of the relationship between financialisation (the processes of the growth of the importance of financial systems, finance and financial motives) and the sustainability of the financial system, economic and social development and the environment.

• The nature of national and international financial systems and their evolution in the past three decades are analysed and assessed. The causes and consequences of the global and national financial crises starting in 2007 are thoroughly investigated. Lessons for policy are to be drawn from the financial crisis about the nature and impacts of financialisation.

• Central issues addressed are the ways in which the growth and performance of economies in the last 30 years have been dependent on the characteristics of the processes of financialisation and how financialisation has impacted on the achievement of economic, social, and environmental objectives. A major feature of FESSUD is its scope of enquiry into the range of economic, social and political consequences from financialisation.

• The research programme of FESSUD integrates diverse levels, methods and disciplinary traditions with the aim of developing a comprehensive policy agenda for changing the role of the financial system to help achieve a future which is sustainable in environmental, social and economic terms.

• FESSUD develops policy agendas on the regulation of the financial sector and on macroeconomic policies which would lead to finance better serving economic, social and environmental needs.

The project was split into 12 work packages:

• WP1 – Management 

• WP2 – Comparative Perspectives on Financial Systems in the EU 

• WP3 – Causes and consequences of the financial crisis 

• WP4 – Regulation of the financial sector 

• WP5 – Finance and well-being 

• WP6 – Finance, development and global governance 

• WP7 – Finance, environment and sustainability 

• WP8 – Finance, real economy and the State 

• WP9 – Financial stability and macroeconomic policies 

• WP10 – Dissemination and impact 

• WP11 – Foresight 

• WP12 – Synthesis and conclusions 

Publications and outputs

FESSUD has produced a number of resources including: studies in financial systems; working papers series; briefing notes; research briefs; policy briefs, papers in journals and books, infographics, videos and books.

If you would like to access any of these materials, please email research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.