Meet the team
Hilary Sutcliffe and Joe Woof are the co-leads of The Addiction Economy initiative.
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For more about SocietyInside’s other work check our our website:
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Director
Hilary's work over the last 20 years with SocietyInside has been on exploring the concept and practice of a ‘Pro-society’ approach to innovation. This is a system of innovation which better serves people and planet without causing more problems than it solves.
She has been involved in a number of initiatives exploring the whole system of innovation from early academic research, through technology transfer, commercial product development, the role of shareholders, policy decision-making and regulation. Most recently I have focused on building trust in this process and how the meaningful engagement of stakeholders could be incorporated as part of a collaborative outcome-based innovation system.
In 2023 she initiated and co-leads this Addiction Economy project which aims to understand what political and social systems are failing when harmful industries flourish, and what it then takes to put the public interest first in policy and regulation. This initiative brings together her skill in synthesising complex issues, a relentless focus on the public interest, and her strong communications skills honed in the commercial consumer sector.
To see more check out www.societyinside.com
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Joe is the co-lead of the Addiction Economy project, which was inspired by his research on vapes and the addictive effects of social media on young people. His focus is the impact of addiction economy companies on young people - particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha - and the implications for their health and the prosperity of the UK.
His role involves interdisciplinary research into the mechanics of addiction and the 9 sectors, the business models, under scrutiny, the role of free will and the responses that a government should be taking to put public health before profit.
He also develops public engagement and communication programmes, like our Vaping Voices project currently being piloted with schools, delivering provocative talks to government and business and creating clear and accessible communications through film and infographics to bring these complex issues to life.
He has a Master’s degree in Science Communication from UCL and a BA in Geography from Newcastle University where his dissertation focused on exploring with young people why they don’t change their behaviour when they find out about the addictive effects of social media.