David Courtney Boyle (born 1958) is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business, and culture. He lives in Steyning in West Sussex. He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. He is co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a

radical centrist Radical centrism (also called the radical center, the radical centre or the radical middle) is a concept that arose in Western nations in the late 20th century. The '' radical'' in the term refers to a willingness on the part of most radical ce ...

think tank. He is also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.

Writing

His book ''Authenticity'' put the phenomenon on the business and political agenda. His previous books ''The Tyranny of Numbers'' and ''The Sum of Our Discontent'' predicted and fermented the backlash against target culture. ''Funny Money'' helped launched the

time banks In economics, a time-based currency is an alternative currency or exchange system where the unit of account is the person-hour or some other time unit. Some time-based currencies value everyone's contributions equally: one hour equals one servic ...

movement in the UK. More recently, his writing has suggested why organisations and public services can be ineffective. He worked with the

New Economics Foundation The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice". NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth ...

and

NESTA Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

on a series of publications about coproduction. His solutions are also published in ''The Human Element''. Thi
argues
that organisations have abandoned human skills in favour of numerical targets or IT systems, which frustrate the business of building relationships and making things happen. He helped to launch the popular campaign against the failures of the Southern Rail franchise with his book ''Cancelled!'', and his experimental 'passenger strike' in 2017. His history books usually have a business or economic dimension, including ''Blondel's Song'' (UK) and ''The Troubadour's Song'' (USA) about the imprisonment and ransom of

Richard the Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

. His 2008 book ''Toward the Setting Sun'' tells the intertwined story of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

John Cabot John Cabot ( it, Giovanni Caboto ; 1450 – 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest-known European exploration of coastal Nor ...

and Amerigo Vespucci and their race for

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in the 1490s. His 2010 book, ''Eminent Corporations'' (with

Andrew Simms Andrew Simms is an author, analyst and co-director of the New Weather Institute. He is a research associate with the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex and Fellow at the New Economics Foundation. Andrew Simms advoca ...

) has introduced a new genre, the mini-corporate biography, launching the idea of corporate history as tragedy. His 2013 book ''Broke'' argued that the middle classes were also being squeezed by the political and economic elite. He has been the editor of several non-peer-reviewed journals including ''New Economics'' and '' Town & Country Planning''. He is a fellow of the

. He was editor of the weekly ''Liberal Democrat News'' from 1992–1998. He edited the Foundation's publications ''New Economics'', ''News from the New Economy'', and then ''Radical Economics'' from 1987–2010.

Other work

He has been involved with developing coproduction and introducing

to Britain as part of public service reform
developing the idea of coproduction
with the innovation agency Nesta. He has been involved in the Clone Town Britain campaign and writes about the future of volunteering, cities and business. Boyle helped found the London Time Bank, and was co-founder of Time Banking UK. He has been a candidate for

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

, and sat on the federal policy committee of the Liberal Democrats from 1998-2012. He was Lib Dem Blogger of the Year 2013.

Bibliography

*''Building Futures'', 1989 *''What is New Economics?'', 1993 *''Alternative Identities, Alternative Currencies'', 1999 *''Funny Money: In search of alternative cash'', 1999 () *'' The Sum of Our Discontent'', 2001 *'' The Tyranny of Numbers'', 2001 *''The Little Money Book'', 2003 () *''The Money Changers: Currency Reform from Aristotle to e-cash'', 2003 *''Numbers'', 2004 () *''Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life'', 2004 () *'' The Troubadour's Song: The Capture and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart'', 2005 () *''Blondel's Song: The Capture, Imprisonment and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart'', 2005 () *''Leaves the World to Darkness'' 2007 () *''Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot and Vespucci and the Race for America'' 2008 () *''Co-production: A manifesto for growing the core economy'' 2008 () *''The New Economics: A Bigger Picture'' with Andrew Simms (2009) Routledge *''Money Matters'' (2009) *''The Wizard'' (2010) *''Eminent Corporations'' with Andrew Simms (2010) *''Voyages of Discovery'' (2011) *''The Human Element: Ten new rules to kickstart our failing organizations'' 2011 () *'' Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes?'' (2013) Fourth Estate *''The Age to Come. Authenticity, Postmodernism and How to Survive What Comes Next'' (2013) *''How to be English'' Square Peg (2015) 978-0224100977 *''Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma'' Endeavour Press/Real Press (2015) 978-1500985370

References

External links

David Boyle's official site

New Weather Institute
co-operative think tank associated with Boyle
Radix

think tank associated with Boyle {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, David 1958 births Living people British economics writers Liberal Democrats (UK) parliamentary candidates People from Crystal Palace, London Radical centrist writers