What does a Plenitude Economy look like? A quoi ressemble une Economie de Plénitude? | Economies Locales Vivantes | Scoop.it.
Kiel Institute for the World Economy — Portal. How Can Business-to-Business Trade Networks Build Local Resilience. Over the past year, I’ve been exploring the many examples out there of communities forming peer-to-peer networks in order to rebuild local economies, resilience and trust. These range from gift economies to barter groups, from loyalty programs to mutual credit systems. The latter, mutual credit systems, is the focus of this post. The oldest mutual credit system still in operation today (of which I am aware) is the WIR, based in Switzerland, which was created in 1934 due to currency shortages after the stock market crash of 1929. The WIR is managed by the WIR-bank, a cooperative owned by the businesses using it.
They currently have about 75,000 Swiss businesses as members, representing about 25% of all businesses in the country. It’s essentially just a bookkeeping system that enables transactions to happen, and is generated directly among the businesses. I reached out to its founder, Amy Kirschner, to find out more about how it works. How did you get the VBSR Marketplace off the ground? 1. It's Time for Entrepreneurs to Shift and Reset. It’s time for more entrepreneurs to reset their focus, and shift their thinking to completely different ways of doing things. Everyone talks about innovation, but the majority of business plans I see still reflect linear thinking – one more social network with improved usability, one more wind-farm energy generator with a few more blades, or one more dating site with a new dimension of compatibility. Serious changes and great successes don’t come from linear thinking. In searching for ways to get this message out, I came across a no excuse, no apology, new book by Brian Reich, called “Shift and Reset,” which makes some excellent points on ways to increase the range of change in a person’s thinking, or an organization’s results.
Here are some key principles that he espouses and I support: Force and expect change. Everyone knows change is hard and messy, and occasionally painful. Innovation begins with knowing your customer, so that’s always the first place to focus. 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. Economic systems thinking_23_07_10. Visualizing a Plenitude Economy. Transitioning to the New Economy by Arthur Brock on Prezi. Symbionomics: The Film.
A story about expressive capacity « flow. On a community currency related Skype chat that I’m a part of, there’s been a conversation that cycles around now and again about how the various national jurisdictions respond to community currencies, how they are likely to try and shut them down (as they did in the 30′s), and what to do about. Arthur Brock responded saying: “I think the most effective way to avoid being shut down (or even taxed for that matter) by the powers that be is to operate using non-monetary currencies that don’t look like money or compete in the same space as money.
We use dozens of these a day and they’ll never be able to even attempt to shut all of these types of things down.” Synchronisticly I had just seen an article on the “The game-based economy” which I think neatly illustrates Arthur’s point. Look closely at what “gamification” actually means in the case studies. It’s the introduction of wealth acknowledgment token systems that account for the wealth being generated by a “game.”
New Economy, New Wealth - Alan Alves Fortes' posterous. New Economy, New Wealth by Arthur Brock on Prezi. Transitioning 2 New Economy. 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. Living Economies Forum. New Economy Working Group | Equitable economies for a living earth. 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. Price: $15.95 (You Save 20%) And eligible for FREE Shipping on orders of $25 or more. 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.
Change will have to come from below. Agenda for a New Economy is the handbook for that revolution. 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. 2011 Independent Publisher Book Award silver medalist.
The David Korten Book Set. More Governments Show Interest in New Economic Yarsdsticks. “It’s the economy, stupid,” Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign advisors famously declared. Today, more governments might add nuance: “It’s about well-being.” Prosperity, to be sure, but prosperity with a purpose. Economic Advance (credit: Grand Velas) Recently, China and the United Kingdom were added to the growing list of governments interested in redefining the very purpose of economies. After adopting and then abandoning a green GDP measure in 2005, China embraced a new plan in November for economic advance based on 55 indicators—from carbon emissions per person to the share of environmental spending in the government budget. A few weeks later, U.K. China and the U.K. are only the latest countries to focus on delivery of well-being rather than economic output alone. Future of money. 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. 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. Metacurrency_Flowspace Orientation - What is an overview of Metacurrency Flowspace concepts? MetaCurrency. The flowplace.
TEDxParis 2011 -@jfnoubel - Free currencies. 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. [french ]Vers un capitalisme cognitif ? > L'économie de la pollinisation | Nouveaux paradigmes.
[FR] Le nouveau paradigme - P. Herlin - Prix spécial Turgot 2011. Changer de paradigme pour retrouver une croissance durable "La finance est devenue folle" clame-t-on partout, souvent avec raison, mais aussi avec fatalisme. Que faire ? On ignore souvent que le mal a été diagnostiqué depuis longtemps, en premier lieu par le mathématicien français Benoît Mandelbrot, l'inventeur des fractales, puis par d'autres esprits iconoclastes tel Nassim Taleb, le découvreur des "cygnes noirs". Philippe Herlin revient dans ce livre sur la naissance de la finance moderne et ses développements jusqu'à nos jours, pour mettre en lumière les erreurs de ce modèle. Cette révolution copernicienne de la finance devient urgente : la gestion de l'entreprise a également été "contaminée", et la crise perdure, sans réelles perspectives de redémarrage.
Avec une préface de Bernard Marois, président du Club Finance HEC. [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.