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The approaching great transformation

Author: Magnuson, Joel

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2013-07-17

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1447311140

Joel Magnuson's visionary insights into the decline of the Oil Age and life afterward combine sobering warnings with genuine hope. The facts are hard: global oil deposits will soon peak if they haven't already and the violent race to secure what's left has already begun. Meanwhile, our culture of consumption continues its heedless dependence on this and other scarce and fast-disappearing resources including other fossil fuels, water, topsoil, and basic metals. The consequences won't just be expensive gasoline. The very nature of life as we've come to know it will change and Magnuson explains how compounding factors like global warming, skyrocketing debt, and ill-prepared governments stand to turn this inevitable change into a needless catastrophe. But the hope is real: individuals and communities around the world have already begun taking action to shift away from consumer culture. Drawing on the visionary work of E.F. Schumacher, John Ruskin, and other pioneering thinkers, Magnuson argues that mindful and concerted action can shape the future. With an emphasis on current transitional projects like B Corporations and LETS projects, he shows that the true great transformation is already underway and it's up to us to continue it. With a foreword by Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)

Great Transformations

Author: Mark Blyth

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-09-16

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780521010528

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This book picks up where Karl Polanyi's study of economic and political change left off. Building upon Polanyi's conception of the double movement, Blyth analyzes the two periods of deep seated institutional change that characterized the twentieth century: the 1930s and the 1970s. Blyth views both sets of changes as part of the same dynamic. In the 1930s labor reacted against the exigencies of the market and demanded state action to mitigate the market's effects by 'embedding liberalism.' In the 1970s, those who benefited least from such 'embedding' institutions, namely business, reacted against these constraints and sought to overturn that institutional order. Blyth demonstrates the critical role economic ideas played in making institutional change possible. Great Transformations rethinks the relationship between uncertainty, ideas, and interests, achieving profound new insights on how, and under what conditions, institutional change takes place.

The Great Transformation

Author: Karl Polanyi

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2024-06-20

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1802065164

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‘One of the most powerful books in the social sciences ever written. ... A must-read’ Thomas Piketty 'The twentieth century's most prophetic critic of capitalism' Prospect ‘Polanyi’s revolutionary work is a must-read’ Mariana Mazzucato Karl Polanyi's landmark 1944 work is one of the earliest and most powerful critiques of unregulated markets. Tracing the history of capitalism from the great transformation of the industrial revolution onwards, he shows that there has been nothing 'natural' about the market state. Instead of reducing human relations and our environment to mere commodities, the economy must always be embedded in civil society. Describing the 'avalanche of social dislocation' of his time, Polanyi’s hugely influential work is a passionate call to protect our common humanity. ‘Polanyi's vision for an alternative economy re-embedded in politics and social relations offers a refreshing alternative’ Guardian ‘Polanyi exposes the myth of the free market’ Joseph E. Stiglitz With a new introduction by Gareth Dale

The Approaching Great Transformation

Author: Joel Magnuson

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2013-04-16

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1609804805

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"A brave book by a smart person with a masterful command of economic theory."—Publisher's Weekly How should we act and think economically in the world as the era of cheap oil comes to an end? The Approaching Great Transformation begins to answer this massive question, focusing on the people and communities already at work on the transition: energy descent pioneers in the UK and the US educating their communities about the road ahead, small enterprises defying traditional “profit” in favor of permanence and sustainability, and cities preparing for a post carbon future. Highlighting the work of thinkers like John Ruskin and E. F. Schumacher, Magnuson here builds on his previous book, Mindful Economics.

Market and Society

Author: C. M. Hann

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-05-14

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0521519659

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This volume considers how the work of Polanyi can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between market and society.

Mindful Economics

Author: Joel Magnuson

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2008-09-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1583228470

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Are the huge profits garnered by corporations each year a case of a few bad apples in the business world taking advantage of unmonitored dealings? Is this consolidation of wealth made at the expense of the overall economy and the wellbeing of the average citizen? Will the planet be saved by developing more "green businesses" and "green collar" jobs? Joel Magnuson delivers a powerful response to the current misconceptions about the US economy in his brilliantly accessible Mindful Economics. The troubles we face are not the result of a good system gone awry, but rather a system that is built to do exactly what it is doing: corporations are designed to reap profits for its shareholders, at any cost. The greater welfare of society, or of the environment, will never be as important as financial gain. Magnuson shows us the relationship between the current wars abroad; rising oil prices; the recession; ballooning incomes of top CEOs; the mortgage crisis; and the health care, insurance, and auto industries, and he teaches us that the best way to understand the US economy is to think like an economist. With stunning clarity, Magnuson shows the interconnectedness of the local with the global, and offers real alternatives to this capitalist model.

Leading Change

Author: John P. Kotter

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1422186431

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From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Author: Klaus Schwab

Publisher: Currency

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1524758876

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World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wearable sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manufacturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individuals. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frameworks that advance progress.

Participation

Author: Samuel Hickey

Publisher: Zed Books

Published: 2004-10

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9781842774618

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Participatory techniques have established themselves in both project implementation in developing countries and community interventions in industrial countries. Recently, participation has been fashionably dismissed as more rhetoric than substance, and subject to manipulation by agents pursuing their own agendas under cover of community consent. In this important new volume, development and other social policy scholars and practitioners seek to rebut this simplistic conclusion. They show how participation can help produce genuine transformation for marginalized communities. This volume is the first comprehensive attempt to evaluate the state of participatory approaches in the aftermath of the "Tyranny" critique. It captures the recent convergence between participatory development and participatory governance. It revisits the question of popular agency, as well as spanning the range of institutional actors involved--the state, civil society and donor agencies. The volume embeds participation within contemporary advances in development theory.

Methodological Approaches to Societies in Transformation

Author: Yasmine Berriane

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 3030650677

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Carefully contextualizing the ethnography by taking scale and time seriously, the book shows why fieldwork is both necessary and insufficient if the aim is to make sense of the contemporary world. It is a significant contribution to the renewal of anthropological theory and methodology. Highly recommended! -Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo, Norway With an eye for various scales, biographies of people and things, and processes as they take place, this book provides insights into how, to whom, and when things change, how it feels like - and also how some things stay the same. -Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Berlin) This important book, drawing on ethnographic research from across the globe, addresses both the 'why' and the 'how' of studying societal change, inviting the reader to reflect on the potential - and the limits - of qualitative methods. - Jonathan Rigg, University of Bristol, UK This open access book provides methodological devices and analytical frameworks for the study of societies in transformation. It explores a central paradox in the study of change: making sense of change requires long-term perspectives on societal transformations and on the different ways people experience social change, whereas the research carried out to study change is necessarily limited to a relatively short space of time. This volume offers a range of methodological responses to this challenge by paying attention to the complex entanglement of qualitative research and the metanarratives generally used to account for change. Each chapter is based on a concrete case study from different parts of the world and tackles a diversity of topics, analytical approaches, and data collection methods. The contributors' innovative solutions provide valuable tools and techniques for all those interested in the study of change. Yasmine Berriane is permanent researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, Centre Maurice Halbwachs), France. Annuska Derks is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Aymon Kreil is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, Belgium. Dorothea Lüddeckens is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.