I have always liked that British phrase, “joined-up thinking.” It reminds me a little of learning to do cursive writing, joining all those letters together. But increasingly, I have come to think that ‘joined-up thinking’, these days, more often comes from the bottom of the system rather than the top.

Take universal basic income, for one. There have been small pilot projects in various North American cities over the years that looked primarily at whether it affects peoples’ work habits if they are given a fixed amount of money each month. A massive experiment has been going on in Kenya, to look at the impact of giving people in communities a basic security of income. Cash aid has been shown to be more effective in letting refugees meet their needs, while also supporting local economies, than providing goods does.