Reframing the Game: The Transition to a New Sustainable Economy


Book Description

Capitalism is fast approaching the tipping point into a new sustainable economy that will allow people and the planet to prosper. Pieces of a jigsaw are coming together and bringing into focus a picture of a new, vibrant, attractive and sustainable economic operating system. This quiet revolution is underway - if we could only allow it to flourish. This Special Issue of Building Sustainable Legacies brings together key voices in business and academia that show us how to accelerate towards this tipping point by exploring the role that business in society, responsible education, leadership techniques and legal reform will have in shaping the new sustainable economy. Including contributions from Paul Polman, Katrin Muff, Beate Sjafjell and Gabriele Zedlmayer, this outstanding collection proposes leading insights and innovative solutions to the challenge of creating new economies that work for people and the planet.




Reframing the Problem of Climate Change


Book Description

This book provides an evaluation of the science and policy debates on climate change and offers a reframing of the challenges they pose, as understood by key international experts and players in the field. It also gives an important and original perspective on interpreting climate action and provides compelling evidence of the weakness of arguments that frame climate policy as a win-or-lose situation. At the same time, the book goes beyond providing yet another description of climate change trends and policy processes. Its goal is to make available, in a series of in-depth reflections and insights by key international figures representing science, business, finance and civil society, what is really needed to link knowledge to action. Different contributions convincingly show that it is time – and possible – to reframe the climate debate in a completely new light, perhaps as a system transformative attractor for new green growth, sustainable development, and technological innovation. Reframing the Problem of Climate Change reflects a deep belief that dealing with climate change does not have to be a zero sum game, with winners and losers. The contributors argue that our societies can learn to respond to the challenge it presents and avoid both human suffering and large scale destruction of ecosystems; and that this does not necessarily require economic sacrifice. Therefore, it is vital reading for students, academics and policy makers involved in the debate surrounding climate change.




The Quiet Revolution


Book Description

We are in a new era. The systems, rules and behaviors that led to business success in the early 21st century are no longer working. Since the onset of the longest and deepest financial crisis in living memory, capitalism is still suffering a crisis of liquidity, reliability and confidence. There is a huge question mark over whether our economic system will allow us to make the necessary transition to a more sustainable world or whether we are locked into a fatal collision course. We desperately need a new operating system, one that will enable us to make the transition to a sustainable future in which people and businesses flourish within planetary limits. There is good news. Many of the potential solutions are already available, and a quiet revolution is already underway. The Quiet Revolution maps out the new sustainable economy using examples, insights and case studies. Allowing the reader to view the scene through a wider lens of sustainable economics, it becomes possible to see pieces come together, bringing into focus an attractive picture of a new, vibrant and sustainable economic system. This groundbreaking book shares the extent to which the solutions are already available, and demonstrates how the new sustainable global economy can be realized.




Reframing Economics


Book Description

The objectives of this book are twofold. Firstly, it proposes that economics should be defined as a study of imperfect cooperation. Secondly, it elucidates the continuities that extend from classical political economy through the neoclassical, Keynesia




Towards a Natural Social Contract


Book Description

This open access book is a 2022 Nautilus Gold Medal winner in the category "World Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development". It states that the societal fault lines of our times are deeply intertwined and that they confront us with challenges affecting the security, fairness and sustainability of our societies. The author, Prof. Dr. Patrick Huntjens, argues that overcoming these existential challenges will require a fundamental shift from our current anthropocentric and economic growth-oriented approach to a more ecocentric and regenerative approach. He advocates for a Natural Social Contract that emphasizes long-term sustainability and the general welfare of both humankind and planet Earth. Achieving this crucial balance calls for an end to unlimited economic growth, overconsumption and over-individualisation for the benefit of ourselves, our planet, and future generations. To this end, sustainability, health, and justice in all social-ecological systems will require systemic innovation and prioritizing a collective effort. The Transformative Social-Ecological Innovation (TSEI) framework presented in this book serves that cause. It helps to diagnose and advance innovation and spur change across sectors, disciplines, and at different levels of governance. Altogether, TSEI identifies intervention points and formulates jointly developed and shared solutions to inform policymakers, administrators, concerned citizens, and professionals dedicated towards a more sustainable, healthy and just society. A wide readership of students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in social innovation, transition studies, development studies, social policy, social justice, climate change, environmental studies, political science and economics will find this cutting-edge book particularly useful. “As a sustainability transition researcher, I am truly excited about this book. Two unique aspects of the book are that it considers bigger transformation issues (such as societies’ relationship with nature, purpose and justice) than those studied in transition studies and offers analytical frameworks and methods for taking up the challenge of achieving change on the ground.” - Prof. Dr. René Kemp, United Nations University and Maastricht Sustainability Institute




WTO Reform


Book Description

The publication provides historical and up-to-date insights into how reform can be transformational and progressive in nature and broadens the debate by focusing not only on new pathways for decision-making but also on important issues such as the environment and the SDGs. Finally, it highlights the importance of keeping the multilateral trading system alive for the benefit of all states, particularly for small states, Least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan African countries. WTO Reform: Reshaping Global Trade Governance for 21st Century Challenges, is designed to serve as a valuable resource for government officials, trade negotiators, journalists, academics and researchers who are attempting to sort through the complexities of the organisation and the role they can play in supporting a fairer, more inclusive WTO and multilateral trading system.




Reframing Poverty


Book Description

Everyone has an explanation for poverty. The poor lack personal responsibility. There aren't enough jobs. The stresses of poverty keep people poor. Poor people have a "culture of poverty." The debate among these different explanations has gone on for centuries without meaningfully improving our understanding of the issue.We choose one of these views largely based on the experiences of our own lives, and on those of our families. By looking at why we each choose one of these views over the others, Eric Meade reveals what is valid in each of these views. He then combines them to create a more coherent explanation that can deepen our understanding of poverty and stimulate wiser action to reduce it.Praise for REFRAMING POVERTY: "In this eloquently crafted and persuasively argued book, Meade makes the counter-intuitive claim that we can't address poverty mainly by using microscopes to examine ever more minutely the lives of people who are poor. Rather, we need to use mirrors to examine the hearts and minds of those of us who aren't. Interweaving compelling stories with incisive analysis, Meade makes a convincing and ultimately transformative case. Fair warning: if you are not poor, you will come away with a deep sense of humility toward your own good fortune, but also with a deep sense of responsibility for those who languish in poverty."--Galen Guengerich, Senior Minister, All Souls Unitarian Church, New York City"Meade brings his broad perspective and genuine curiosity to this important exploration of poverty. He reminds us that we are all connected to poverty in some way. By validating the wide range of emotions poverty evokes in all of us, Meade breathes humanity into this discourse. A compelling treatise on a critical global issue."--Sanjay Pradhan, CEO, Open Government Partnership"A refreshing discourse on poverty ... As an expert in human-centered design, I was struck by Meade's emotional definition of poverty and by how he encourages the reader, through real-world examples, to explore how their personal experience influences their understanding of poverty."--Michelle Risinger, Innovation Director, Pac




Transitions to Sustainable Development


Book Description

There has been a growing concern about the social and environmental risks which have come along with the progress achieved through a variety of mutually intertwined modernization processes. This book addresses how to understand the dynamics and governance of long term transformative change towards sustainable development.




Global Political Leadership


Book Description

Global Political Leadership explores contemporary shifts in leadership, and the related leadership crisis, in the global world. Globalization is now perceived as a threatening and hostile force, with many of its advocates and political supporters turning away from it, but its processes cannot be reversed. New powers emerge, old ones re-emerge, and uncertainty about the future global order is increasing. This book tells the inside stories of global power games and asks important questions about the leadership crisis in the western world. The author provides an interpretative framework for contemporary shifts within the western political sphere based on the concept of global leadership. This framework presents the nature of the transformation caused by global processes, as part of which force and coercion have ceased to be the main modus operandi of the international realm. The issue of global political leadership has often been neglected in international relations literature, while being widely exploited by managerial and organizational studies. However, all social organizations have ‘gone global’ within the last several decades; they are more interconnected and more dependent on global processes, so the question of effective leadership strategies matching these new realities is highly necessary, even – or especially – at a time when globalization is no longer seen as a leading political programme. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of global affairs, politics and international relations, leadership and development, and diplomatic studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.




Trade Unions in the Green Economy


Book Description

Combating climate change will increasingly impact on production industries and the workers they employ as production changes and consumption is targeted. Yet research has largely ignored labour and its responses. This book brings together sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, historians, economists, and representatives from international and local unions based in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Taiwan, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Together they open up a new area of research: Environmental Labour Studies. The authors ask what kind of environmental policies are unions in different countries and sectors developing. How do they aim to reconcile the protection of jobs with the protection of the environment? What are the forms of cooperation developing between trade unions and environmental movements, especially the so-called Red-Green alliances? Under what conditions are unions striving to create climate change policies that transcend the economic system? Where are they trying to find solutions that they see as possible within the present socio-economic conditions? What are the theoretical and practical implications of trade unions’ "Just Transition", and the problems and perspectives of "Green Jobs"? The authors also explore how food workers’ rights would contribute to low carbon agriculture, the role workers’ identities play in union climate change policies, and the difficulties of creating solidarity between unions across the global North and South. Trade Unions in the Green Economy opens the climate change debate to academics and trade unionists from a range of disciplines in the fields of labour studies, environmental politics, environmental management, and climate change policy. It will also be useful for environmental organisations, trade unions, business, and politicians.