As the threat of a global climate crisis grows and economic conditions continue to falter, a movement is growing in support of long-term systemic change. Advocates of a ‘new economy’ are rethinking business-as-usual and placing environmental and social responsibility at the fore, writes Gar Alperovitz.
The basic assumptions about human nature that inform economic and political decision-making are long outdated and fundamentally flawed. By acknowledging our interdependence and common ethical values, we can build a more sustainable, cooperative and inclusive global economy, argue Rajesh Makwana and Adam Parsons.
Many people have become dominated by consumerism and no
longer recognise the value of our natural world or the importance of community.
Indigenous cultures have a lot to teach us about sharing, sustainability, and a
spiritual relationship to Mother Earth, explain Freddy Treuquil and Victor
Lem Masc.
The grassroots movement for economic localisation represents a positive and practical response to the challenges of food insecurity, climate change, peak oil and financial instability. Governments should support this alternative vision for sustainable, human-scale development, writes Anna White.
The proposal for fewer and more evenly shared work hours seems counter-intuitive in the current economic framework. Only by removing the structural bias towards overwork and hyper-consumerism can we build lasting prosperity within ecological limits, argues Anna White.
Today’s political economy is failing to enhance social well-being while sustaining democratic prospects and environmental quality. It is time to foster progressive perspectives and ideas that challenge the fundamental working arrangements of the status quo, writes Gus Speth.
Despite the oft-repeated claim that ‘there is no alternative', today’s market society is neither natural nor inevitable. Acknowledging and exploring other forms of economic organisation may be the most powerful form of resistance to the status quo, argues Alexia Eastwood.
