[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. Third, notice that the only serious challenge to capitalism after the demise of feudalism/mercantile economy has been Marxist economics. Second, the free market does not seem to be free any more. Consciousness is the ground of all being.
[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. 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. (1) Fondé en Inde par Bill Drayton, Ashoka vise à favoriser l'essor d'un secteur de l'entrepreneuriat social innovant.
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. Reich makes the point that everyone has a role to play in solving major issues, and driving greater innovation.
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. 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? It’s been a long and winding road. The Marketplace was launched in January 2010. I have not yet run into this problem.
New Economy Working Group | Equitable economies for a living earth. [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 ? 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.
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. 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. Ce paradoxe bizarre entre l’accroissement des relations humaines et la diminution du lien social pourrait-il trouver une explication dans la nature trompeuse de l’échange marchand ? Quand l’échange marchand abolit la relation Frédéric Laupiès, Leçon philosophique sur l’échange Don et contre-don Photos flickr stevendepolo
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. Here’s a little story to explain what I mean about the new expressive capacity (meta-language) that is embodied in current-see: Literacy is a necessary precursor to democracy in large scale societies.
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. 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. That the term “new economy” has begun to explode into public use in diverse areas may be an indication that the movement has reached a critical stage of development—and a sign that the domination of traditional thinking may be starting to weaken. Democratizing Ownership New Economy, New Ways to Work