*A note on the concept of a good life: this is not a definition but rather a description. What makes a good life in a specific place is dependent on the specific place, but through LBD’s research focusing on that which we share, certain themes kept re-emerging. These constituted the characterisation of a good life discussed below…*

‘Shower upon him every earthly blessing… give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species… man would play you some nasty trick…He would even risk his cakes… , the most uneconomical absurdity… simply in order to prove to himself… that men still are men and not the keys of a piano’ – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground

Whilst economic modelling lies at the heart of much of what LBD does, it was crucial for the team to keep in mind that living well is more than economic agents responding to incentives and rewards. A good life seems to require an active component, it must be lived, with that word being a verb.

This translates to giving communities and individuals an active stake in their society. Allowing people to feel empowered to take and make real decisions that can contribute to the story of their lives, community and polis.

This entails leaving enough space in between the public and private sector so that people do not become completely dependent on either but can instead, interact with both aiming at a shared common flourishing.

‘Removing agency from the individual is not a part of the good life; nor is increasing the wealth and power of an influential party’ – Jose Garibaldi, Director of Energeia, LBD Rannoch Meetings 2022.