Economies that Mimic Life

Economies that Mimic Life PDF Author: Joseph H. Bragdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100032785X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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Book Description
The world economy today is at an historical inflection point. The neoclassical (industrial) model of economics is self-destructing while a new life-mimicking model, based on radically different assumptions, is emerging. Although rarely acknowledged in economic journals, Nordic countries, which pioneered the life-mimicking model, have become world leaders in prosperity and productivity while those operating on the older neoclassical/industrial model are trapped in downward spirals. By approaching economies as sub-systems of life rather than super-systems that transcend life, we gain transformative insights. Such thinking led to the first circular economy experiments in Kalundborg (Denmark) during the 1970s, then quickly spread to the rest of the Nordic world. By placing a higher value on living assets (people and Nature) than on non-living capital assets, this approach generates harmony rather than exploitation and conflict. Because Nordic people feel vested in the system and responsible for its success, they are extraordinarily innovative and productive. That is why Nordic companies are regularly rated among the world’s most sustainable and profitable in their fields – even though their region holds less than half of one percent of the world’s population. Written in an accessible way for non-economists, the book is ideal for readers interested in the benefits of biomimicry and methods of guiding democratic countries along a proven path of self-renewal. Economies That Mimic Life will also provide useful background for corporate leaders in scenario planning and strategic thinking. Knowing which way the political-economic wind is blowing will become increasingly important to corporate survival.

Economies that Mimic Life

Economies that Mimic Life PDF Author: Joseph H. Bragdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100032785X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 111

Get Book

Book Description
The world economy today is at an historical inflection point. The neoclassical (industrial) model of economics is self-destructing while a new life-mimicking model, based on radically different assumptions, is emerging. Although rarely acknowledged in economic journals, Nordic countries, which pioneered the life-mimicking model, have become world leaders in prosperity and productivity while those operating on the older neoclassical/industrial model are trapped in downward spirals. By approaching economies as sub-systems of life rather than super-systems that transcend life, we gain transformative insights. Such thinking led to the first circular economy experiments in Kalundborg (Denmark) during the 1970s, then quickly spread to the rest of the Nordic world. By placing a higher value on living assets (people and Nature) than on non-living capital assets, this approach generates harmony rather than exploitation and conflict. Because Nordic people feel vested in the system and responsible for its success, they are extraordinarily innovative and productive. That is why Nordic companies are regularly rated among the world’s most sustainable and profitable in their fields – even though their region holds less than half of one percent of the world’s population. Written in an accessible way for non-economists, the book is ideal for readers interested in the benefits of biomimicry and methods of guiding democratic countries along a proven path of self-renewal. Economies That Mimic Life will also provide useful background for corporate leaders in scenario planning and strategic thinking. Knowing which way the political-economic wind is blowing will become increasingly important to corporate survival.

Economies That Mimic Life

Economies That Mimic Life PDF Author: Joseph H. Bragdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781003109877
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
The world economy today is at an historical inflection point. The neoclassical (industrial) model of economics is self-destructing while a new life-mimicking model, based on radically different assumptions, is emerging. Although rarely acknowledged in economic journals, Nordic countries, which pioneered the life-mimicking model, have become world leaders in prosperity and productivity while those operating on the older neoclassical/industrial model are trapped in downward spirals. By approaching economies as sub-systems of life rather than super-systems that transcend life, we gain transformative insights. Such thinking led to the first circular economy experiments in Kalundborg (Denmark) during the 1970s, then quickly spread to the rest of the Nordic world. By placing a higher value on living assets (people and Nature) than on non-living capital assets, this approach generates harmony rather than exploitation and conflict. Because Nordic people feel vested in the system and responsible for its success, they are extraordinarily innovative and productive. That is why Nordic companies are regularly rated among the world's most sustainable and profitable in their fields - even though their region holds less than half of one percent of the world's population. Written in an accessible way for non-economists, the book is ideal for readers interested in the benefits of biomimicry and methods of guiding democratic countries along a proven path of self-renewal. Economies That Mimic Life will also provide useful background for corporate leaders in scenario planning and strategic thinking. Knowing which way the political-economic wind is blowing will become increasingly important to corporate survival.

Companies that Mimic Life

Companies that Mimic Life PDF Author: Joseph H. Bragdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135128374X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Industrial capitalism is broken. The signs, which transcend national ideologies, are everywhere: climate change; ecological overshoot; financial exhaustion; fraying social safety nets; corporate fraud; government deceit; civic unrest; terrorism; and war. But there is hope. This book tells how transformation is taking root in the corporate world – the last place many of us would look for solutions. The book tells the stories of seven exceptional companies. Their shared secret is a new mental model of the firm that is the virtual opposite of industrial capitalism. Each company, if not already a household name, is a significant player within their industry and, crucially, has outperformed their competitors. Lessons can be learned. It works like this. Instead of modeling themselves on the assumed efficiency of machines – a thought process that emerged during the industrial age – these firms model themselves on living systems. Firms with open, ethical, inclusive traditions – where employees have a voice and a stake in what happens – have a distinct advantage over traditionally managed companies where most decisions are made at the top. Understanding that everything of value ultimately arises from life, they place a higher value on living assets (people and Nature) than they do on non-living capital assets. The energy they invest in stewarding those assets – a practice described in the book as living asset stewardship (LAS) – is transformative.

Life Rules

Life Rules PDF Author: Ellen LaConte
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 1550925210
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Corporate capitalism has ravaged the planet the way HIV ravages the human body, triggering a Critical Mass of cascading environmental, economic, social and political crises. Economic and climate instability, collapsing ecosystems, peak fossil fuels and devastating resource wars-if Earth were a patient, her condition would be critical. Life Rules offers a comprehensive analysis of our present circumstances combined with a holistic treatment protocol for restoring health to vulnerable human and natural communities. Predicting that Life will last but, if we don't make some fundamental changes, life as we know it-and a lot of us-won't, Life Rules identifies natural laws that have allowed non-human communities to thrive and prosper for several billion years, including: Local self-reliance Mutual interdependence Reliance on non-fossil sources of energy Resource conservation, sharing and recycling Co-operation and co-intelligence Radically democratic self-organization and governance. This sobering yet essentially optimistic manifesto is required reading for anyone concerned about our ability to live well and also within Earth's means. A powerful tool for community transition and cultural transformation, Life Rules offers a solution to our global challenges that is at once authentically hopeful, deeply inspiring and profoundly liberating.

Applied Economics for Development: Empirical Approaches to Selected Social and Economic Issues in Transition Economies

Applied Economics for Development: Empirical Approaches to Selected Social and Economic Issues in Transition Economies PDF Author: Mahmut Zortuk
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1622733576
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Transition economies experience transformation of their economic system. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a number of former socialist countries underwent transitions from central planning to a market economy. More generally, many rapidly growing economies undergo no less profound transformations of their economic systems. Contrary to common misconception, the transition process cannot be simply reduced to eliminating state intervention and liberalizing the economy. Economies under transition exhibit a unique set of policy challenges. Unlike developed market economies, missing markets or market failures abound. Economic transformation takes the form of rapidly evolving patterns of international trade and investment, industrial structure and consumption. These changes call for appropriate public policies. A continuing flow of investment hinges on suitable institutions, the provision of public infrastructure and other public goods. Adequate regulation can be central in ensuring that environmental resources are sustainably managed. And sophisticated production systems, call for corresponding social institutions in terms of education, health and welfare provisions. In all these cases, accurate empirical assessments are central to the design of effective policy. This book presents a selection of pressing economic and social issues in transition economies. Selected issues include the development of particular industrial sectors, the drivers and consequences of foreign direct investment, public finances, urbanization, social indicators, environmental policy and energy diversification. In each case an original empirical analysis is performed, using a variety of advanced quantitative methods, applied to recent data. The book will be of interest to economists studying transition economies, economic development or having a general interest in applied economics. It will be of particular interest to applied economists, policy analysts and policy makers in transition economies, concerned with the shape and direction of appropriate economic reforms.

 PDF Author: Ellen LaConte
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450259189
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
LaConte's book offers a compelling answer To The now-universal question suggested by her subtitle. The global economy has gone viral. it is ravaging Earth's equivalent of an immune system the way HIV ravages the human immune system, triggering a Critical Mass of AIDS-like mutually reinforcing environmental, economic, social and political crises that are undermining the ability of human and natural communities to support, protect and heal themselves. LaConte's prognosis? Since Life rules, we don't, Life will last but Life as we know it-and a lot of us-won't. LaConte shows that Life learned two billion years ago how to deal with pathological economies: it put them out of business. it encoded in other-than-human species a set of Economic Rules for Survival that allow them to live within Earth's means long term. In accessible prose LaConte explains how those rules can work for humans too. Recommended as a tool for community transition and cultural transformation, Life Rules offers a solution to our global crisis the publishers call "authentically conserve-ative, deeply Green, and profoundly liberating."

Ubiquitous Technologies for Human Development and Knowledge Management

Ubiquitous Technologies for Human Development and Knowledge Management PDF Author: Rahman, Hakikur
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799878465
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
In recent decades, digital technologies have permeated daily routines, whether at school, at work, or during personal engagements. Stakeholders in education are promoting innovative pedagogical practices, the business sector is utilizing updated processes. Even the public is improving their lifestyles by utilizing innovative technology. In a knowledge construction setting, technology becomes a tool to assist the user to access information, communicate information, and collaborate with others towards human development and knowledge management. In this context, ubiquitous computing has emerged to support humans in their daily life activities in a personal, unattended, and remote manner. Ubiquitous Technologies for Human Development and Knowledge Management serves as an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the widespread incorporation of technological innovations around the globe. It examines how the application of ubiquitous computing technologies affects various aspects of human lives, specifically in human development and knowledge management. The chapters demonstrate how these ubiquitous technologies, networks, and associated systems have proliferated and have woven themselves into the very framework of everyday life. It covers categorized investigations ranging from e-governance, knowledge management, ICTs, public services, innovation, and ethics. This book is essential for ICT specialists, technologists, teachers, instructional designers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest technologies and how they are impacting human development and knowledge management across different disciplines.

Fair Economics

Fair Economics PDF Author: Irene Schoene
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857843109
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
Have you ever questioned our economic model? Wondered how the financial crash was able to happen? Thought about what we can do stop it happening again? Modern economics bases its view of the world on assumptions Adam Smith made about nature and people nearly three hundred years ago, in a time when people travelled by horse and carriage and wrote by the light of candles. We now live in a globally connected, post-industrial world of digital communication and advanced technology – and yet, our economic model remains stuck in the past. Taking a thorough look at economics, including the history and how we reached our current way of thinking, Irene Schoene puts forward an alternative economics that is not only relevant to our modern world of technology and industry, but which also shows an awareness of environmental considerations. Read this to be enlightened about how economics can be considerate of our environmental situation.

Agenda for a New Economy

Agenda for a New Economy PDF Author: David C. Korten
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1605092908
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Today's economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. However, as David Korten shows, the steps being taken to address it do nothing to deal with the reality of a failed economic system. It's like treating cancer with a bandage. Korten identifies the deeper sources of the failure: Wall Street institutions that have perfected the art of creating "wealth" without producing anything of real value: phantom wealth. Our hope lies not with Wall Street, Korten argues, but with Main Street, which creates real wealth from real resources to meet real needs. He outlines an agenda to create a new economy-- locally based, community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits. It will require changes to how we measure economic success, organize our financial system, even the very way we create money, an agenda Korten summarizes in his version of the economic address to the nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.

Economic Stories For Undergrads

Economic Stories For Undergrads PDF Author: Annavajhula J. C. Bose
Publisher: OrangeBooks Publication
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Economics is the strangest and most dubious as also frustrating animal of social sciences and humanities. The debate on what it is and what its strengths and weaknesses are in understanding and changing the economy and society for the better, is never ending. This book cuts through this noise for econ-undergrads with social concerns. It is crafted to be stuffed with peripatetic hops, skips and intellectual and emotional jumps about the nature and character of the brain circuits of economics in terms of its methodological, political, sociological, anthropological, historical, feminist, ethical, ecological, spiritual, literary, technical, corporate and other underpinnings. Diverse stories are told as alerts or nudges for the undergrads, who as aspirant youth have, in general, hyperbolic discounting attitude towards social change. The mind and heart of the undergrad reading this book will hopefully be ignited so as to endeavour to find out the purpose of economic education and how economics should be learnt in order to rectify the failures of our current socio-economic system. The seriously academic undergrad may also be inspired to pursue the long-range objective of doing integrated studies and research for maximised understanding and holistic policy making, which is, of course, easier to say than do.