Dedication
This first year of The Commons is being dedicated to the name of Kenneth Ewart Boulding, 1909-1993, one of the magisterial figures in the field of social science of this last half century.Professor Boulding was internationally known for his innovative and sensitive work in the field of economics, and indeed was elected as president of the American Economics Association (along with the presidency of five other major scholarly societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science). He taught at universities on three continents, authored more than thirty books and hundreds of articles, pamphlets and papers, and was awarded numerous honors for his work not only as an economist pushing the forefront of his profession, but also as a humanist, futures thinker and major activist in the field of peace and conflict resolution.
Kenneth Boulding was a profoundly democratic man, a Quaker (the Society of Friends), a loving and diligent work partner with his wife, the eminent Norwegian-born sociologist Elise Boulding, and both a worrier (about our ability to survive the challenges of the modern world) and an optimist (he decided to dedicate his life to doing something about it anyway). In the last two years of his life, he took to writing sonnets, 216 in all between 1981 and 1993. We have taken one of these to sound the theme for our collective enterprise.
Sonnet for the Neighborhood Democratic Caucus
They come -- a somewhat miscellaneous group
Of people gathered from the neighborhood.
Some may be naive -- some are fairly good
At jumping through the somewhat twisted hoop
Of politics -- not getting in the soup
Of disagreement, finding where they stood
On touchy issues that might mean they could
Lose the election; learning when to stoop,And when to stand against a blatant wrong,
When to be quiet, when a little raucous,
And how to turn a heterogeneous caucus
Into a choir, singing the same good song,So, to democracy all should be turning
When it is not just voting, but group learning.
Kenneth Boulding, Boulder, Colorado, 14 April 1992
A Boulding Repository:
We have sought the permission of Professor Boulding's family to make this dedication, with the thought that through his work and his person he symbolized many of the values that we believe to be vital to the future. Family, friends, former students, and admirers are invited to share with us copies of some of his papers or letters that treat the central themes of The Commons, as well as anecdotes and stories about Kenneth which will help those who miss him think of him with a smile -- and help those who never had the good fortune of meeting him to get to know and learn from him, if just a bit. These materials, as they become available to us, will be directly accessible from this page.
Books in Print by Kenneth Boulding
The following lists the available titles of books by Ken Boulding from Books in Print. They can be ordered through your local book dealer, net source or from the group we often order from in Oregon: Powell Books, whom we have found over the years to be efficient, friendly, and economical. Naturally prices and availability are subject to change. (And more recently, there is of course the Amazon option.)
- The Future: Images & Processes $21.95
- The Future: Images & Prophecies $45.00
- National Images & International Systems
- Structure Of A Modern Economy $65.00
- There Is A Spirit: The Nayless Sonnets $4.50
- Toward A New Economics $69.95
- Three Faces Of Power $49.95 (Cloth) $24.00 (Paper)
- Conflict And Defense Price Not Set
- Economics As A Science $20.00
- Meaning Of The 20th Century Price Not Set
- Beyond The Bomb $7.95
- Mending The World
- Economics Of Human Betterment $59.50
- The World As A Total System $35.00
- The Organizational Revolution: A Study In The Ethics Of Economic Organization $57.50
- Preface To Grants Economics Price Not Set
- Evolutionary Economics $57.00
- Disarmament And The Economy $35.00
- Ecodynamics: A New Theory Of Societal Evolution $21.95
- Redistribution Through The Financial System Price Not Set
- Stable Peace $7.95
- Economics Of Peace $20.95
- Peace And The War Industry $24.95 (Cloth) $14.95 (Paper)
- Mayer Boulding Dialogue On Peace Research $3.00
- The Evolutionary Potential Of Quakerism $3.00
- The Image: Knowledge In Life And Society $15.95
- New Nations For Old $3.00
- Collected Papers Of Kenneth E. Boulding
- Vol 2 - $134.70
- Vol 3 - $177.90
- Vol 4 - $179.90
- Vol 5 - $124.90
- Vol 6 - $180.00
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