Welcome to Glasshouse Forum

Glasshouse Forum was founded in 2007 on the conviction that critical analysis of capitalism is most constructively formulated by those who fundamentally accept this system and provides an arena for critical reflection on the merits and demerits of capitalism. It consists of a large network of researchers and intellectuals from different disciplines, mainly from Europe and the USA, but also from China and Russia. The forum is politically independent and has not engaged in lobbying activities, or made policy recommendations. Read our mission statement.

In the publication Capitalism in a New Geopolitical Order. Conclusions and Summary from the Work of Glasshouse Forum 2007–2011, Kay Glans and Johanna Laurin Gulled of the Glasshouse Forum secretariat summarise the work done. Download the publication here.

Highlights from the Glasshouse Forum:

The report Understanding Short-termism: the Role of Corporate Governance, written by Gregory Jackson, Freie Universität Berlin, and Anastasia Petraki, University of Bath, contends that short-termism is caused by a selfreinforcing shortening of time-horizons produced by the interaction between on the one hand shareholders – pension funds, private equity, hedge funds – and on the other managers. Short-termistic behaviour is amplified by gatekeepers mediating these relationships – securities analysts, credit rating agencies, auditors. Short-termism therefore should be regarded as a social process, in which a certain behaviour is reinforced by the reaction of others.

In the anthology Beyond the Consumption Bubble, published by Routledge in cooperation with Glasshouse Forum, scholars and experts in the field of consumption representing a variety of disciplines shed light on many fundamental questions, such as the character of society, including social and cultural dimensions; the relations between the generations; dependency on technology and the risks involved; the rise of Asia and its potential consumption preferences; the question of whether we must continuously increase our consumption to avoid a recession and whether this is ecologically sustainable.

Inequality in a Time of Contraction - an international conference organised by Glasshouse Forum and Stanford University: Although there has been extensive discussion of the financial dimensions of the crisis, to date there has been far less written about the distributional implications. The conference brought together scholars from the social sciences, such as economics, sociology, and political science, to deepen our understanding of the link between globalisation (of both financial and real markets) and economic inequality. In this way we will be in a better position to understand and perhaps predict the consequences to inequality of the current economic turmoil.

Anthony Atkinson	Jonas Pontusson	Kim Weeden	Richard Freeman

Speakers included: Anthony Atkinson, Oxford University, Enrico Moretti, University of California Berkeley, Philippe Aghion, Harvard University, Robert Frank, Cornell University, Richard Blundell, University College London, Richard Freeman, Harvard University, Jonas Pontusson, Princeton University, Thomas DiPrete, Columbia University, John Van Reenen, London School of Economics/GSB Stanford University, Kim Weeden, Cornell University. Moderator: Chris Giles, Economics Editor, Financial Times. The conference took place at Stanford University. Listen to what the experts said.

Scenario report Alphabet Soup: The Political Economy of the Great Recession, written by Daniel W. Drezner, Professor of International Politics at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. Read more and download the report here.

The Impact of the Global Crisis on EU-China Relations - a Glasshouse Forum seminar in cooperation with ECFR. Speakers: Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European studies, Oxford, and ECFR Member, Shaoguang Wang, Professor of Political Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, John Fox, ECFR Asia Senior Policy Fellow. Moderated by Mark Leonard, Executive Director of ECFR.

Timothy Garton Ash and Mark Leonard (Photo: Jonatan Kruse)

The seminar started with a screening of the film Is There a China Model?, a video documentation of the China-West Intellectual Summit, produced by Glasshouse Forum. Read more.

The participants in the film are: Gideon Rachman, moderator of the summit and Chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, Timothy Garton Ash, Oxford University, Daniel A. Bell and Zhiyuan Cui of the Tsinghua University in Beijing, Azar Gat, Tel Aviv University, Simon Long, Asia editor for The Economist, Vivienne Shue, Oxford University, Shaoguang Wang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Feng Zhang, The Foreign Policy Centre in London, Wei-Wei Zhang, Centre for Asian Studies in Geneva and Fudan University in Shanghai, and Yongnian Zheng, National University of Singapore. Read more and watch the film.

Read Gideon Rachman's Financial Times blog about the film and The Economist's article about the the China-West Intellectual Summit.

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