Summify - The Old Economy’s Not Coming Back. So What’s Next? Meet the people and ideas on the cutting edge of the movement for a new economy. posted May 26, 2011 Editor's Note: When our friends at The Nation asked us to share this article with you, we were excited. We're big admirers of the author, Gar Alperovitz, a visionary thinker on economic possibilities and a former YES! Magazine board member. The idea that we need a “new economy”—that the entire economic system must be radically restructured if critical social and environmental goals are to be met—runs directly counter to the American creed that capitalism as we know it is the best, and only possible, option. The new economy movement seeks an economy that is increasingly green and socially responsible, and one that is based on rethinking the nature of ownership and the growth paradigm that guides conventional policies. Democratizing Ownership For-profits have developed alternatives as well. New Economy, New Ways to Work Leading Thinkers and Organizations
The Wealth of Networks » Chapter 5: Individual Freedom: Autonomy The emergence of the networked information economy has the potential to increase individual autonomy. First, it increases the range and diversity of things that individuals can do for and by themselves. It does this by lifting, for one important domain of life, some of the central material constraints on what individuals can do that typified the industrial information economy. The majority of materials, tools, and platforms necessary for effective action in the information environment are in the hands of most individuals in advanced economies. Rory Cejas was a twenty-six-year-old firefighter/paramedic with the Miami Fire Department in 2003, when he enlisted the help of his brother, wife, and a friend to make a Star Wars-like fan film. Jedi Saga will not be a blockbuster. Perhaps no single entertainment product better symbolizes the shift that the networked information economy makes possible from television culture than the massive multiplayer online game.
french - Comment l’économie du partage crée du lien social Alors que les échanges marchands créent de plus en plus d'exclusion sociale et de défiance, l'économie du partage, par le don, transforme les relations grâce à la reconnaissance et l'inter-dépendance. Le XXème siècle aura été incontestablement celui de l’échange marchand. Jamais l’humanité n’avait autant commercé, exporté, importé. Jamais les transactions n’avaient été aussi simples et rapides. Le volume du commerce mondial a triplé depuis la chute du mur de Berlin et a connu une croissance presque exponentielle [en] jusqu’à la crise économique de 2008. Bizarrement, alors que les hommes entraient toujours plus en interaction et devenaient toujours plus dépendants les uns des autres, ce XXème siècle aura connu un immense délitement des structures sociales traditionnelles sans création d’autres structures alternatives efficaces. Quand l’échange marchand abolit la relation Frédéric Laupiès, Leçon philosophique sur l’échange Don et contre-don Vers de nouvelles civilisations ? Photos flickr
Agenda for a New Economy - from phantom wealth to real wealth Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth David C. Korten Paperback, 2nd Edition, August 2010, 288 pages List Price: $19.95. Nearly two years after the economic meltdown joblessness and foreclosures are still endemic, Wall Street executives are once again getting massive bonuses, and there doesn’t seem to be the will in Washington to make desperately needed fundamental changes to the economy. In this revised and updated edition Korten offers more in-depth advice on how to mount a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on locally-owned, community-oriented "living enterprises," whose success is measured as much by their positive impact on people and the environment as by their positive balance sheet. "At last, a book by one of our most brilliant economic thinkers that outlines the real causes of—and solutions to—the current economic crisis." — John Perkins, NY Times bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man You Might Also Be Interested In:
Living Economies Forum New Economy Working Group | Equitable economies for a living earth. The Bank of Facebook: Currency, Identity, Reputation There has been much speculation recently about the role Facebook Credits could play in becoming a global virtual currency, and even the possibility of Facebook becoming a bank. In many ways, it already is becoming a bank – just not in the traditional sense. Facebook is harnessing the power of the social graph, and has certainly adopted an expanded definition of what ‘currency’ means. It’s time for the rest of us to hop on board. As I’ve been conducting research for The Future of Facebook Project, the experts and thought leaders interviewed shared some compelling views about the evolution of virtual currencies, and Facebook’s potential role in their development. A big takeaway is that while we typically associate currency directly with money, the rise of the social web and quantification is shifting that reality to become more inclusive of kinds of capital that were formerly intangible. Credits as Currency Identity as Currency Reputation as Currency New Currencies = New Banks
Symbionomics: The Film Monetizing Intangible Capital The following video series was recorded at the Future Of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco on February 28, 2011. The name of this panel is Monetizing Intangible Capital. The speakers are Mary Adams (moderator), Art Brock, Greg Wendt, and myself. All six parts are posted below (8-10 minutes each) for public distribution, comments, and review. I found this panel to be extremely interesting and especially valuable since these panelists represents an important cross section of professionals who are actually doing the hard work of designing, testing, developing, and producing specifications for the creation, storage, and exchange of what could represent a large percentage of the value in our global economy. This discussion is not insignificant by any measure. Art Brock introduces a set of very important ideas about how there is a vast amounts of “Value” that is not, and many never be, adequately articulated by a “monetary” system that exists today.
[french ]Vers un capitalisme cognitif ? > L'économie de la pollinisation | Nouveaux paradigmes Toward a Spiritual Economics Many people think that capitalism and market economics grew out of materialist philosophy that classical physics has given us. But this is myopic thinking of people who have missed the evolution of consciousness in the affairs of the manifest world. First notice that during the period that capitalism developed in the hands of such luminaries as Adam Smith, it was Cartesian dualism under the modernist umbrella that was the influential metaphysic, not materialism. In modernism, mind and meaning are valued. Second, notice that capitalism replaced feudalism and the mercantile economy (Adam Smith's term for the economy prevalent in England in his time), in which the pursuit of meaning is highly limited and vast numbers of people are denied it. Compared to feudalism in which wealth or capital remains in the hands of a fortunate few, capitalism and the market economy have certainly brought capital in the hands of many more. Second, the free market does not seem to be free any more.
[FR] Pour une économie "hybride" En novembre, la 4e édition nationale du Mois de l'économie sociale et solidaire va donner lieu à 1500 événements dans tout le pays. Une occasion pour les 217 000 associations, coopératives, mutuelles, fondations (2 millions de salariés) de gagner en visibilité. D'ampleur, cette initiative ne provoquera pas pour autant de changement systémique. Or, à l'heure où le modèle capitaliste montre ses limites, "il faut inventer une économie hybride, impliquant le secteur social, le monde du business et les pouvoirs publics dans des projets d'envergure, capables de résoudre les problèmes de la société. La philanthropie verticale a vécu", lance Arnaud Mourot, directeur général d'Ashoka (1) France-Belgique-Suisse. Et de citer l'exemple de Danone, qui, en collaboration avec la Grameen Bank de Muhammad Yunus, héraut du microcrédit, fabrique et commercialise des yaourts survitaminés au Bangladesh à l'intention des plus pauvres.