There are a fair number of good ideas whipping about out there in the world of print. And some thought-provoking ones that are perhaps less useful, but still worth a whirl. And of course the anticipatable huge number of bad ones, poorly written, worse reasoned, and certainly not worth the sacrifice of a tree. But if we are to make our contributions to sustainability and social justice, we have no choice: we simply must keep on reading, listening, communicating, observing and, as possible, getting directly involved in the processes. In this spirit, we have set out to develop a bit of a 'rethinking library' of which you have here the first candidates. As always, we count on you to help us augment and improve this portion of the site. For now it is organized simply as follows:
Here we have the economists at the Bank trying to work their way through the growth and social justice tangle. It opens with. . .
"The last decade of the 20th century saw great progress in parts of the world. But it also saw stagnation and setbacks, even in countries that had previously achieved the fastest rates of economic growth. These gaping differences and sharp reversals teach us much about what contributes to development. At the center is economic growth, not just its pace but—as important—also its quality. Both the sources and the patterns of growth shape development outcomes. . . "
October 2000
Previous Pieces in Series
"The underlying theme of our approach to the future of work should be to encourage self-reliance. We need import-substitution policies at every level. At the national level these should help to reduce our dependence on imports, which we have to pay for by producing more exports to earn the necessary foreign exchange. Similarly at the levels of city, neighbourhood and household, policies are needed to enable many of us to become less vulnerably dependent on employers and suppliers of goods and services based elsewhere...."
This thinkpiece looks at a variety of ways to link present urban experience with the requirements of a more resource-efficient and liveable urban future. It is emphasised that for a process of sustainable transformation to be approached successfully, it is important that both the physical and socio-economic trends in cities be viewed from a user perspective. The spectrum of lifestyles found in a city, the forces that shape them and distribute them spatially and socially, offer important clues to understanding the functional realities of the contemporary metropolis and their further evolution.
"From the moment I became involved in the creation of new technologies, their ethical dimensions have concerned me, but it was only in the autumn of 1998 that I became anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century. I can date the onset of my unease to the day..."
"THE federal government phased out the use of lead in gasoline and household paint twenty years ago, but it is still present in many products. Makers of china, water faucets, and calcium supplements have recently gone to great lengths to reduce the amount of lead they use. What is remarkable is that these efforts are not the usual attempts to avoid stiff penalties associated with new federal rules. Instead they are a response to a California law that requires companies to provide information to the public about practices that remain perfectly legal. Corporations all over the country are feeling the effects of an increasingly powerful but unheralded government policy tool: mandatory disclosure."
"The truly revolutionary impact of the Information Revolution is just beginning to be felt. But it is not "information" that fuels this impact. It is not "artificial intelligence." It is not the effect of computers and data processing on decision-making, policymaking, or strategy. It is something that practically no one foresaw or, indeed, even talked about ten or fifteen years ago..."
The old foundations of success are gone. For all of human history the source of success has been controlling natural resources -- land, gold, oil. Suddenly the answer is "knowledge." The king of the knowledge economy, Bill Gates, owns no land, no gold or oil, no industrial processes. How does one use knowledge to build wealth? How do societies have to be reorganized to generate a wealth-enhancing knowledge environment? How do they incubate the entrepreneurs necessary to bring about change and create wealth? What skills are needed? The knowledge-based economy is asking new questions, giving new answers, and developing new rules for success
There was a time when by the "new economics" was meant the Keynesian economics, which was notable as a response to the depression of the 1930s. The new economics that is struggling to grow today is something very different. It constitutes our response to a new set of problems which was only dimly perceived earlier, but has steadily grown in urgency over the last quarter of this century. It attempts to put forward new ideas about how to organise the foundations of a sustainable economy at this juncture in history when there are clear signs that the global economy cannot move much further along the accustomed paths of industrial growth without ending up in total disaster. For the true welfare economist the horizons of enquiry are shifting again in a new direction.... The study of wealth and welfare stands at a new crossroads.
"Computers are doing to communication
what fences did to pastures and cars did to streets."
And quickly
@Work on the Web
@Work Forum
Post Office
Updated 11 September 2000
postmaster@ecoplan.org
Back to top