Download or read book Redefining Prosperity written by Isabelle Cassiers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Society today faces a difficult contradiction: we know exactly how the physical limits of our planet are being reached and exactly why we cannot go on as we have before – and yet, collectively, we seem unable to reach crucial decisions for our future in a timely way. This book argues that our definition of prosperity, which we have long assimilated with the idea of material wealth, may be preventing us from imagining a future that meets essential human aspirations without straining our planet to the breaking point. In other words, redefining prosperity is a necessary and urgent task. This book is the fruit of a long debate among 15 scholars from diverse fields who worked together to bring the depth and nuance of their respective fields to questions that affect us all. The result is a rich, transdisciplinary work that illuminates the philosophical and historical origins of our current definition of prosperity; identifies the complex processes that gave rise to the problems we face today; elucidates the ways in which our contemporary environmental, social, nutritional, economic, political, and cultural crises are interconnected; and explores why a half-century of economic growth has neither increased life satisfaction in the West nor vanquished world poverty. Approaching these broad-ranging questions from the specific standpoints of their disciplines, each of the authors offers thoughts for the future, considering possible escape routes and proposing changes to the way we live, behave, and organise society and public action – changes that actually respond, in an equitable way, to our deepest aspirations. Ultimately, in laying the groundwork for a public debate on this subject, this book poses a question to its readers: what is your definition of prosperity, and what can be done to promote it?

Download or read book Democratize Work written by Isabelle Ferreras and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-06 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent and deeply resonant case for the power of workplace democracy to restore balance between economy and society. What happens to a society—and a planet—when capitalism outgrows democracy? The tensions between democracy and capitalism are longstanding, and they have been laid bare by the social effects of COVID-19. The narrative of “essential workers” has provided thin cover for the fact that society’s lowest paid and least empowered continue to work risky jobs that keep our capitalism humming. Democracy has been subjugated by the demands of capitalism. For many, work has become unfair. In Democratize Work, essays from a dozen social scientists—all women—articulate the perils and frustrations of our collective moment, while also framing the current crisis as an opportunity for renewal and transformation. Amid mounting inequalities tied to race, gender, and class—and with huge implications for the ecological fate of the planet—the authors detail how adjustments in how we organize work can lead to sweeping reconciliation. By treating workers as citizens, treating work as something other than an asset, and treating the planet as something to be cared for, a better way is attainable. Building on cross-disciplinary research, Democratize Work is both a rallying cry and an architecture for a sustainable economy that fits the democratic project of our societies. Contributors include Alyssa Battistoni (Barnard College of Columbia University), Adelle Blackett (McGill University), Julia Cagé (Sciences Po), Neera Chandhoke (University of Delhi), Lisa Herzog (University of Groningen), Imge Kaya Sabanci (IE Business School), Sara Lafuente (European Trade Union Institute), Hélène Landemore (Yale University), Flávia Máximo (Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil), and Pavlina R. Tcherneva (Levy Economics Institute of Bard College).

Download or read book Post growth Economics and Society written by Isabelle Cassiers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We stand on the threshold of a "post-growth" world – one in which the relentless pursuit of economic growth has ceased to constitute a credible societal project. The symptoms that mark the end of an era are clear and incontrovertible: a return to the regularities of the past is illusory. The pursuit of economic growth no longer constitutes a credible societal project for ecological, social, and geopolitical reasons. Edited by an impressive array of experts, this book identifies several areas in which we must fundamentally rethink our societal organisation. They ask what it means to abandon the objective of economic growth; how we can encourage the emergence of other visions to guide society; how global visions and local transition initiatives should be connected; which modes of governance should be associated with the required social and technological innovations. Alongside the necessary respect of ecological limits and equity in distribution, the promotion of autonomy (involving all in the building of socio-political norms) could serve for guidance. The topics addressed over the chapters range from the future of work to the de-commodification of economic relations; the search for new indicators of progress to decentralized modes of governance; and from the circular economy to polycentric transitions. Each contribution brings a unique perspective, a piece of a larger puzzle to be assembled. Post-growth Economics and Society is an important volume to those who study ecological economics, political economy and the environment and society. It invites theorists as much as practitioners to re-explore the roots of our societal goals and play an active role in the systemic shift to come.

Download or read book Religion Modernity Globalisation written by François Gauthier and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the last four decades have seen profound and important changes in the nature and social location of religion, and that those changes are best understood when cast against the associated rise of consumerism and neoliberalism. These transformations are often misunderstood and underestimated, namely because the study of religion remains dependent on the secularisation paradigm which can no longer provide a sufficiently fruitful framework for analysis. The book challenges diagnoses of transience and fragmentation by proposing an alternative narrative and set of concepts for understanding the global religious landscape. The present situation is framed as the result of a shift from a National-Statist to a Global-Market regime of religion. Adopting a holistic perspective that breaks with the current specialisation tendencies, it charts the emergence of the State and the Market as institutions and ideas related to social order, as well as their changing rapports from classical modernity to today. Breaking with a tradition of Western-centeredness, the book offers probing enquiries into Indonesia and a synthesis of global and Western trends. This long-awaited book offers a bold new vision for the social scientific study of religion and will be of great interest to all scholars of the Sociology and Anthropology of religion, as well as Religious Studies in general.

Download or read book The Contamination of the Earth written by Francois Jarrige and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The trajectories of pollution in global capitalism, from the toxic waste of early tanneries to the poisonous effects of pesticides in the twentieth century. Through the centuries, the march of economic progress has been accompanied by the spread of industrial pollution. As our capacities for production and our aptitude for consumption have increased, so have their byproducts--chemical contamination from fertilizers and pesticides, diesel emissions, oil spills, a vast "plastic continent" found floating in the ocean. The Contamination of the Earth offers a social and political history of industrial pollution, mapping its trajectories over three centuries, from the toxic wastes of early tanneries to the fossil fuel energy regime of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Global Modernity and Social Contestation written by Breno M. Bringel and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2015-01-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new generation of truly global sociology, grappling with the contemporary world through the lenses of critique, contestation, and social movements. A significant contribution." - Göran Therborn, University of Cambridge "This is a truly global and politically challenging book, bringing together top level researchers and sharply tackling its themes. People from every corner of the planet and from all walks in the social sciences will surely profit from reading it." - Carolina Mera, University of Buenos Aires How can we link contemporary social processes – which have typically been theorized in terms of the concept of modernity – with contemporary social movements, conflicts, and mobilizations which aim at social change? This text: links the social theory of modernity to critical theory and to recent class and citizenship politics as well as to identity politics uses concrete social processes to illustrate theoretical discussion with relevant empirical studies and applies theoretical analysis to different interactions, tensions and possibilities to provide an integrated understanding of global modernity and social contestation includes contributions from distinguished international scholars working in sociological theory and modernity, as well as social movement studies and political contestation, with a strong emphasis on global issues This is a key resource for research in both social theory and the sociology of modernity, as well as social movements and social contestation, and readers interested in globalization and global studies.

Download or read book Process Engineering Renewal 1 written by Éric Schaer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Process engineering emerged at the beginning of the 20th Century and has become an essential scientific discipline for the matter and energy processing industries. Its success is incontrovertible, with the exponential increase in techniques and innovations. Rapid advances in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, as well as current societal needs – sustainable development, climate change, renewable energy, the environment – are developments that must be taken into account in industrial renewal. Process Engineering Renewal 1 – the first volume of three – focuses on training, demonstrating the need for innovation in order for the field to have a framework that is sustainable, in a highly changeable world.

Download or read book Process Engineering Renewal 3 written by Éric Schaer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-17 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Process engineering emerged at the beginning of the 20th Century and has become an essential scientific discipline for the matter and energy processing industries. Its success is incontrovertible, with the exponential increase in techniques and innovations. Rapid advances in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, as well as current societal needs sustainable development, climate change, renewable energy, the environment are developments that must be taken into account in industrial renewal. Process Engineering Renewal 3 presents a prospective analysis that demonstrates the significant disruptions linked to sustainable development, global warming, etc. These constraints may trigger changes in the social regulation system, which in turn applies pressure on actors of process engineering to evolve and adapt to these developments.

Download or read book Deconstructing Flexicurity and Developing Alternative Approaches written by Maarten Keune and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the concept of flexicurity has come to occupy a central place in political and academic debates regarding employment and social policy. It fosters a view in which the need for continuously increasing flexibility is the basic assumption, and the understanding of security increasingly moves from social protection to self-insurance or individual adaptability. Moreover, it rejects the traditional contradictions between flexibility and security, blending the two into a single notion and thus depoliticizing the relationships between capital and labour. This volume provides a critical discussion of the flexicurity concept, the theories upon which it is built and the ideas that it transmits about work, unemployment and social justice. It shows that flexicurity fosters the further individualization of social protection, an increase in precariousness and the further weakening of labour in relation to capital. The authors present a series of alternative theoretical, normative and policy approaches that provide due attention to the collective and political dimension of vulnerability and allow for the development of new societal projects based on alternative values and assumptions.

Download or read book Social Innovation in the Service of Social and Ecological Transformation written by Olivier De Schutter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how the State can play a role as an enabler of citizens-led social innovations, to accelerate the shift to sustainable and socially just lifestyles. To meet the twin challenges of environmental degradation and the rise of inequalities, societal transformation is urgent. Most theories of social change focus either on the role of the State, on the magic of the market, or on the power of technological innovation. This book explores instead how local communities, given the freedom to experiment, can design solutions that can have a transformative impact. Change cannot rely only on central ordering by government, nor on corporations suddenly acting as responsible citizens. Societal transformation, at the speed and scope required, also should be based on the reconstitution of social capital, and on new forms of democracy emerging from collective action at the local level. The State matters of course, for the provision of both public services and of social protection, and to discipline the market, but it should also act as an enabler of citizen-led experimentation, and it should set up an institutional apparatus to ensure that collective learning spreads across jurisdictions. Corporations themselves can ensure that society taps the full potential of citizens-led social innovations: they can put their know-how, their access to finance, and their control of logistical chains in the service of such innovations, rather than focusing on shaping consumers’ tastes or even adapting to consumers’ shifting expectations. With this aim in mind, this book provides empirical evidence of how social innovations, typically developed within "niches", initially at a relatively small scale, can have society-wide impacts. It also examines the nature of the activism deployed by social innovators, and the emergence of a "do-it-yourself" form of democracy. This book will appeal to all those interested in driving societal change and social innovation to ensure a sustainable and socially just future for all.

Download or read book Humanitarian Ecological Economics and Accounting written by Jacques Richard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-17 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strict conversation of financial capital allows accountants to preserve capitalism in its current form. Thus, building a more humane economy will require a new accounting model. Humanitarian Ecological Economics and Accounting: Capitalism, Ecology and Democracy argues for the adoption of a CARE model: comprehensive accounting in respect of ecology. This new model will take the traditional weapons of capitalist accounting and turn them against capitalism, with a goal to protect and conserve human and natural capital within the framework of a democratic society. The CARE model has been conceived as the potential basis of a new type of market economy and of a new type of governance of firms and nations. Additionally, this allows for a new conception of capital, cost and profit that helps with moves towards a society of the commons. The first part of the book explores the reconstruction of accounting and economics from the ground up, outlining the theoretical basis for the model. The second part of the book explores the transformation of the governance of firms and nations. Finally, an additional section is dedicated to the conception of a new model of national accounting. This book will be of significant interest to readers of ecological economics, critical accounting and heterodox economics.

Download or read book Challenges of Globalization and Prospects for an Inter civilizational World Order written by Ino Rossi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 1104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a must-read volume on globalization in which some of the foremost scholars in the field discuss the latest issues. Truly providing a global perspective, it includes authorship and discussions from the Global North and South, and covers the major facets of globalization: cultural, economic, ecological and political. It discusses the historical developments in governance preceding globalization, the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to globalization, and analyzes underdevelopment, anti-globalization movements, global poverty, global inequality, and the debates on international trade versus protectionism. Finally, the volume looks to the future and provides prospects for inter-civilizational understanding, rapprochement, and global cooperation. This will be of great interest to academics and students of sociology, social anthropology, political science and international relations, economics, social policy, social history, as well as to policy makers.

Download or read book Towards Sustainable Welfare States in Europe written by Schoyen, Mi A. and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This seminal book addresses the critical and urgent question of ‘what makes welfare states sustainable?’ in the era of climate change. Expert authors challenge traditional perspectives on questions of sustainability which have focused on population ageing, global economic turbulence and on containing current and future public social spending.

Download or read book Africa Development written by and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mystique A Collection of Lake Myths written by Beatrice Fri Bime and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2009 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beatrice Bime has displayed creativity in story-telling through a narrative technique which tends to be a mixture of the subjective and the objective as well as the inclusion of a whole lot of experiences that are both contemporary and seemingly far removed from myth."-Bole Butake, Professor of African Literature, Yaounde University 1, Cameroon --

Download or read book World Fertility Survey Conference 1980 written by World Fertility Survey. Conference and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Coviability of Social and Ecological Systems Reconnecting Mankind to the Biosphere in an Era of Global Change written by Olivier Barrière and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the principle of ‘sustainable development’ which is currently facing a growing environmental crisis. A new mode of thinking and positioning the ecological imperative is the major input of this volume. The prism of co-viability is not the economics of political agencies that carry the ideology of the dominant/conventional economic schools, but rather an opening of innovation perspectives through science. This volume, through its four parts, more than 40 chapters and a hundred authors, gives birth to a paradigm which crystallizes within a concept that will support in overcoming the ecological emergency deadlock.