Molly Scott Cato
Molly Scott Cato Ph.D. (born in 1963 in Wales) is a green economist and prominent member of the Green Party of England and Wales. She is Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the University of Roehampton and Convenor of Roehampton Business School's Responsible Capitalism research centre. Molly is the Green Party's Economics Spokesperson. She currently lives in Stroud, and has three children.[1]
Early life and education
Cato grew up in Bath before going to the University of Oxford to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), where her stated areas of interest included "the politics of Latin America and international politics". After working in the publishing industry, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth with a thesis on employment policy in the South Wales Valleys.[1]
Academic career
Cato began work at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) and as a researcher for Cardiff Institute for Co-operative Studies in 2002 and since 2012 has been a Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the University of Roehampton. She has published widely on green economics, localism and anti-capitalism. She wrote Seven Myths About Work in 1996 and co-edited Green Economics: Beyond Supply and Demand to Meeting People's Needs in 1999 with Miriam Kennett. Her report on the structure of government specialist science advice committees, I Don't Know Much About Science, apparently "influenced the structure of the government's new committee examining the effects of low-level radiation". Another report in 2002 for the Association of Green Councillors was titled Using Best Value to Encourage Green Procurement in Local Authorities.[1]
In 2009 she published Green Economics: An Introduction to Theory, Policy and Practice ( Earthscan), where she argues that society should be embedded within the ecosystem, and that markets and economies are social structures that should respond to social and environmental priorities. She includes examples of effective green policies that are already being implemented across the world policy prescriptions for issues including climate change, localization, citizens' income, economic measurement, ecotaxes and trade. In his review of the book in the Journal of Economic Geography Danny Dorling called it 'a serious book written by the grown-up version of the kinds of people who are currently invading airports, chaining themselves to those coal trucks on the way to power stations and populating climate camps.'[2]
Her later book Environment and Economy describes the main academic responses to the need to resolve the tension between economy and environment: environmental economics, ecological economics, green economics, and anti-capitalist economics. It covers topics including an introduction to economic instruments such as taxes and regulation; pollution and resource depletion; growth; globalization vs. localization and climate change. Cato is now working on proposals for a ‘bioregional economy’, linking people more closely to their local places to ensure stronger resource security and lower energy use.
Cato also promotes her own website, Green Economist,[3] works with the thinktank Green House,[4] and is responsible for the Gaian Economics blog.[5]
Political career
Having joined the Green Party in 1988, Cato has stood as a candidate for the Preseli Pembrokeshire constituency at the 1997 and 2005 general elections. She has been on the Party’s list for the European elections three times: twice in Wales and most recently in the South-West in 2009.[1]
In 2011, Cato was elected to represent Valley Ward on Stroud District Council. In 2012 she became leader of the Green Group on the Council and was involved in negotiations to create a system of ‘constructive co-operation’ to take control of the Council in May 2012. She is a member of the Council’s Audit Committee.
She has been Co-Chair of the Green Party Regional Council and served on the Green Party Executive as Campaigns Co-ordinator. Since 2001, she has been the party's Economics Spokesperson.
In addition to her party political activities, Cato is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association for Heterodox Economics and is a leading member of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies. She formerly served as a member of the Advisory Group of the Equality Trust
In July 2012 Molly was selected as the lead candidate to contest the European Parliament Elections for the South West Green Party in 2014.
Community involvement
Molly is active in her home town of Stroud, where she has been a Director of Transition Stroud, which is part of the Transition Towns network. She also works with Stroud Commonwealth, to help bring assets into community ownership, and is one of the founders of the Stroud Pound.
See also
References
Bibliography
- Cato, M. S., The Bioregional Economy, Earthscan, 2012 ISBN 978-0415500821
- Cato, M. S., Environment and Economy, 2011 ISBN 0415477417
- Cato, M. S., Green Economics: An Introduction to Theory, Policy and Practice, Earthscan 2009 ISBN 1844075710
- Cato, M. S., Market, Schmarket: Building the Post-Capitalist Economy, 2006 ISBN 978-1-873797-51-8
- Cato, M. S., The Pit and the Pendulum: A Co-operative Future for Work in the South Wales Valleys, 2004 ISBN 978-0-7083-1869-0
- Cato, M. S., Kennett, M. (eds.), Green Economics: Beyond Supply and Demand to Meeting People's Needs, 1999 ISBN 1-897761-18-X
- Cato, M. S., Seven Myths About Work, 1996 ISBN 978-1-897761-13-7
External links
- Molly Scott Cato's Blog Gaian Economics
- Molly Scott Cato's personal website Green Economist
- Molly Scott Cato's academic profile
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