In the decade since we founded Onion Collective, we have developed insight and expertise around attachment economics, social capital, cultural delivery and systems change. We have always sought to commit our evolving thinking to paper, as a way to explore, share and learn. A selection of our writings on a range of subjects can be found below.
Essays, blogs, publications
Jess Prendergrast, 2026
The world is too much
On burnout, complexity and narrative collapse
Jessica Prendergrast, 2025
Part 1 - Transition Models and Metaphor:
Reclaiming Hope for Alternative Futures
Proposing a new model for systems transformation beyond capitalism.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2025
Part 4 - Funding and Philanthropy:
Resourcing Hope For Alternative Futures
Fixing the funding shortfall to nourish new possibilities.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2021
Attachment Economics: everyday pioneers for the next economy
How a different kind of approach to economics is rippling up from the bottom in our communities.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2019
Rolling with the punches
Time for an honest conversation about this pressure to ‘keep bouncing back’.
Sally Lowndes, 2025
Part 2 - Networks and Movement Building:
Connecting Hope for Alternative Futures
Tracing how networks help connect and unite UK practitioners into a transformative movement.
Jessica Prendergrast and Sally Lowndes, 2025
Appendix:
Researching Hope For Alternative Futues
Methods and considerations in an experimental relational approach to uncovering the ecosystem of UK alternative futures practitioners.
Georgie Grant, 2023
Esther's Key: a folk tale
A folk tale about connectedness, hope and new pathways to a shared future.
Onion Collective, 2021
An East Quay Manifesto
A statement of what we hope to achieve at East Quay.
Sally Lowndes, 2018
Community accountability: it's the way we do business
For Community Business, accountability isn’t an add on, it’s part of the fabric.
Jess Prendergrast, 2017
In West Somerset, we are done waiting
Taking things in to our own hands to support economic renewal and social mobility.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2025
Part 3 - Scale and Practice:
Practising Hope for Alternative Futures
Revealing what characterises the transformational work of alternative futures practitioners in the UK.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2023
Liminal Economics: Swimming at the Edge of the Economy
How operating between one economy and the next brings complexity, contradiction and hope.
Sally Lowndes, 2022
Our sustainability journey at East Quay
The practical realities of navigating a different way of doing things.
Jessica Prendergrast, 2020
5 things the government might not want us to learn from the fight against covid-19 and what it means for a different kind of economics
Thoughts of hope and frustration from a pandemic.
Georgie Grant, 2018
'Let's just bloody do it!': How friendship leads to agency leads to social change
How maybe anything is achievable if friends put their mind to it.