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The interrelationship among development, environment, and human needs is one of the key issues being faced by the world today. The Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef, was a leading thinker on this dynamic, and this book provides both an introduction to and analysis of his work and ideas. Arranged in three main sections – “Human needs and wellbeing”, “Development, growth and sustainability”, and “Methodology of economics” – the chapters in this book contribute to on-going debates on issues as important as human development, the limits of economic growth, deep ecology, sustainable consumption, entrepreneurship, climate change, interdisciplinarity, and the methodology and practice of economics. The contributors to this volume provide a broad range of different critical perspectives on these issues, and the chapters are arranged in dialogue with each other to provide the reader with a rounded view of the legacy of Max-Neef. This book is vital reading for all those interested in ecological economics, environmental economics, development economics, methodology and philosophy of economics, and heterodox economics.
In recent decades, there has been many attempts to describe, explore, and explain the new ‘post-modern’ capitalism of the twenty-first century. In this context, this book looks at one of the most exciting strands of this research in the late twentieth century: the flexible specialisation research programme (FSRP). Drawing on the history of ideas, discourse, and literature on capitalism of the last four decades, this book shows that although ‘flexible specialisation’ anticipated some of the ways in which capitalism was being transformed in the late twentieth century, they underestimated and failed to anticipate the forms of ‘creative destruction’ and corporate digital control whic...
The book presents a high-impact re-reading of core topics in the Marx and Marxist debates including: value-theory, the commodity-nature of money, complex or skilled labour, the determination of the value of labour-power and the nature of extraordinary surplus value. Drawing on this literature, the book provides original and innovative insights into key controversies in contemporary capitalism such as the increasingly intellectual character of commodity-producing labour, the emergence of global value chains, the relevance of ground-rent bearing commodities, and the specific, uneven developmental dynamics of "resource-rich" countries in the global process of capital accumulation. Contributing to the renewed vitality of critical studies of the economic works of Karl Marx, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in contemporary debates within Marxism, as well as readers of political economy, economics, development studies and economic sociology.
The concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV) – creating 'economic' value in a way that also creates value for the whole of society – has risen in prominence as a corporate policy and a strategy in recent years, mainly for third sector or development organisations. However, while it has received considerable interest among business leaders and practitioners, it has also sparked a bitter debate among academics, proponents and sceptics of the idea. Starting from this argument, the book develops a meta-critical examination of the hidden presuppositions of both supporters and critics of Creating Shared Value, particular in relation to the concept of value. It is argued that there are not two se...
This book provides insights on the art of governing a state and managing its external relations from a wealth-power logic. It looks at "economic statecraft", which consists of wealth production, wealth mobilization, and wealth-power conversion by a state. This book reconceptualizes what economic statecraft is and proposes a new theory focused on wealth-power conversion. With a long historic perspective, this book goes through the modern history of Western powers practicing economic statecraft since 1500, and presents three case studies, the United States, the European Union, and China, the three biggest users of economic statecraft in the contemporary world. The book serves as an ideal reference for policy makers, businesspeople, and researchers whose work touch upon either wealth creation, power projection, or the combination of both.
Since becoming formally established with an international academic society in the late 1980s, ecological economics has advanced understanding of the interactions between social and biophysical reality. It initially combined questioning of the basis of mainstream economics with a concern for environmental degradation and limits to growth, but has now advanced well beyond critique into theoretical, analytical and policy alternatives. Social ecological economics and transformation to an alternative future now form core ideas in an interdisciplinary approach combining insights from a range of disciplines including heterodox economics, political ecology, sociology, political science, social psych...
Rejecting much of mainstream economic theory for being too passive, this book argues that the innovative and unpredictable nature of economic phenomena is better understood with analytical devices, which allow for more creative and participatory analysis. As is demonstrated, this has significant implications for our understanding of production, money, and finance. The book introduces the concept of "production commitments": the expectation of a producer that others in the chain will produce their corresponding output. This expectation forms the basis of all specialized production in the economy. And being at the center of the process of specialization, production commitments are the most bas...
The 1970s were a pivotal decade for the US economy: deindustrialization broke the power of the labor unions and made possible the redistribution of income in favor of corporate profits; globalization and offshore investments opened alternatives to domestic nonfinancial capital accumulation; domestic productivity growth declined; and labor-saving technology empowered superstar corporations to rapidly gain market share. This book argues that the persistent fall in profitability, leading to the stagflation crisis, was a direct result of the transition from the Fordist phase of capital accumulation, based on large-scale manufacturing, to the neoliberal phase and the rising power of finance. Neol...
Scotland’s economic capacity to prosper independently of Britain has become a key political issue, dominating the independence referendum of 2014 and continuing to influence British politics since. But, as this book shows, the Scottish economy is not merely a statistical object – it is also a political, sociological and cultural idea which has been imagined and constructed. The book explores the history of how Scotland has been framed in statistical and policy terms, which are laden with conflicts over meaning, ranging from class struggles and struggles against "external control" to the ongoing debate over national independence. Using Scotland as a case study for examining the political ...
Indigenous communities are typically those that challenge the laws of the nation states of which they have become—often very reluctantly—a part. Around the world, community policing has emerged in many of these regions as a product of their physical environments and cultures. Through a series of case studies, Community Policing in Indigenous Communities explores how these often deeply divided societies operate under the community policing paradigm. Drawing on the local expertise of policing practitioners and researchers across the globe, the book explores several themes with regard to each region: How community policing originated or evolved in the community and how it has changed over t...