We began by studying and contacting a range of typical initiatives, collecting together data on each using a template identifying the contributors, their stated purpose, the problems the initiative is seeking to address, the questions it is seeking to answer, and the recommendations for the various actors in the capitalist system (businesses, investors, financial institutions, governments/regulators and international institutions).
The list of initiatives studied and a copy of the template we prepared for each can be found here.
A summary of the Recommendations for action from these initiatives can be found here.
During 2013 and early 2014 we held a number of meetings and workshops with many of these initiatives which helped us to scope out the Cranfield project. There was a general agreement that a mapping exercise was necessary to assist interested parties understand the work being done on various issues and to make connections. On 13 January 2014 Guardian Sustainable Business carried our blog entitled Rewiring capitalism: we need a narrative we can believe in. From the Archbishop of Westminster's better business blueprint to Al Gore's sustainable capitalism, the many new initiatives are in need of a believable narrative.
The meetings and workshops gave rise to some useful discussion on the purpose of business and its role in society after the financial crisis and subsequent recession. A copy of a paper summarising the issues in question can be found here.
These meetings then led on to a more substantial exercise in which we identified and mapped around 130 initiatives and enquires concerned with the future of capitalism, and began to develop a taxonomy which can be found here.