Florence Brighton wins EGRG Dissertation Prize
Braziers Park is delighted to share that former ACRE (Academic and Creative Research) resident Florence Brighton has been awarded the EGRG Dissertation Prize for her outstanding research on postcapitalist and degrowth practices at Braziers Park.
Florence conducted ethnographic research during her residency, exploring how intentional communities such as Braziers engage with degrowth and postcapitalist ideas through diverse and community-based economies. Her dissertation examines how everyday practices of sharing, cooperation, and reduced consumption can create alternative economic models – ones that challenge the assumptions of growth-based capitalism while fostering meaningful forms of social connection and sustainability.
Florence found that “ultimately, Braziers illustrates both the hopeful possibilities and the inevitable tensions of postcapitalist transformation. While it cannot fully detach itself from capitalism, it demonstrates that alternative economic models, based on sharing, cooperation, and reduced consumption, are both viable and fulfilling. Its existence challenges the notion that postcapitalist living is unrealistic or naïve, offering instead a lived example of partial but meaningful resistance to capitalist norms.”
The EGRG Dissertation Prize, awarded by the Economic Geography Research Group, recognises exceptional undergraduate and postgraduate research that contributes new insights to the field of economic geography. Florence’s work stands out for its combination of academic rigour and sensitivity to lived experience – a study that not only analyses alternative economies but participates in them.
Braziers Park warmly congratulates Florence on this well-deserved recognition. Her work reflects the values that continue to guide our community: curiosity, cooperation, and conscious change.
Click here if you would like to find out more about Florence’s recent success. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn. Read Florence’s dissertation here.
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