A Manifesto for Sustainable Business Economics

The Manifesto

Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics

http://www.the-sustainable-economy.org/

We have developed a Sustainable Economy Business Manifesto, which provides a ten-point plan for what businesses can do in practical terms, in migrating towards a more sustainable economy.
As with all ideas on this Project, the Manifesto is a work in progress, rather than a rigid prescription.  We invite you to engage with it; discuss, probe, debate, play with it in your own context - adapt and improve - we are not precious about the detail, but hope the principles we have shared help you develop your own meaningful plan of action.
Good luck!  And please do share your thoughts and feedback with us.
The Sustainable Economy Business Manifesto
1. We can embrace the challenge and work through what a more responsible and sustainable form of economy could mean. We will examine the risks and opportunities for our business, our customers, and our suppliers, while never losing our focus on how we create and share genuine value and wealth.
2. In looking at the big picture, we can start developing creative solutions and new business strategies to explore new market possibilities based on truly sustainable value. We can adopt new models of business success, based on outcomes delivered, and real value generated and shared.
3. We can realise the benefits of the circular economy by optimising resources, reducing waste and costs.  And we can collaborate with others – sharing waste and resources – through industrial symbiosis strategies.
4. In exploring this challenge, we can find the sweet spot of green economy: new jobs, prosperity and reduced environmental impact. These wins are to be found not just in the clean-tech and green sectors but throughout the economy.
5. In recognising the drivers for more re-localised economies, we can examine opportunities for our business operations and supply chain strategies with the possibility of revitalising regions and communities, further sharing value.
6. We can review our business models, and seek opportunities to eliminate unnecessary costs.  We will maintain our margins by reducing waste and resource expenditures yet spending more money on people thereby emphasising the creation and preservation of good jobs.  This will improve the resilience of business and its ability to generate long-term profitability: from waste-to-wages.
7. We can also take the opportunity to move towards shared forms of business ownership with a fair distribution of rewards for the people that truly enable wealth creation.
8. We can engage with all stakeholders, including the investment community to help them through the transition. Our integrated business reporting approaches can help spread awareness of the long-term benefits of sustainable approaches to business.
9. We can use our money wisely, moving it if necessary, to ensure we bank with and invest in appropriate organisations. This is not just an option for disenfranchised individuals – it applies to businesses, too.
10. We can develop new forms of leadership, with vision and courage, to help us look beyond the current system, beyond present-day difficulties, and to take on the real challenge of transformation. We can – and we will – take our business to a better place, another model we have not seen before.

-- We must be the change we want to see

Rethinking Economics Italia - Manifesto

Friday, 11 April 2014

Blogger Ref Link http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics

 

 

Modern economics is a discipline that confronts a stark contrast between its willingness to reform and the static reality it faces, endlessly stuck on its own problems.

 Supporters of quantitative methods and supporters of qualitative methods often disagree about the role either plays in modern economics. While the former put forth a realist view of the world, the latter cry for normative reforms: students need to be taught how things should be rather than how they just are. Herein lies the figure of the social scientist, whose lack of interdisciplinarity today inevitably leads to a debate that is nothing short of hollow.

We need to stop thinking of the economist as someone who is able to tell us how things are going to change, how any economic policy affects our lives, and start turning future economists into social scientists who know how to face social, ethical, and anthropological problems alike. It is they who are going to carry on the normative approach, in a better, independent way.

Social scientists of tomorrow must base their work on their own beliefs, yet must overcome their creeds and to refute them, if needed. Their job is not to find the truth as much as disprove it. It is their own intellectual honesty and open-mindness which makes them a reliable scientist.

For this very purpose, we need to challenge the concept of the economics faculty as an institution whose sole job is to prepare its pupils to manipulate the inner workings of financial capitalism.

But even here universities fall short, and there are two words that tell us why: mainstream economics. In almost every university swathes of students are taught but mainstream economics – post-Keynesian and neoclassical. The rationale underlying this choice is that these are the only theories used by policymakers. A vicious cycle is thus created: alternative economic theories are put aside because they lack empirical evidence, and they lack empirical evidence because no policymaker wants to use them.

Therefore, we need to provide students, if possible from the very start of their academic careers, with the chance to have a taste of the different lines of economic thought, and to provide them with teachings that go pari passu with the evolution of the economic thought itself. To study different ways of thinking does not mean making things hard for the pupils as much as it means broadening their horizons.

We also need to overcome the hegemony of quantitative thinking. Quantitative tools, lacking variables that economic processes themselves cannot take into account, inevitably lead many a theory to fail. However, it needs to be said that challenging this hegemony does not mean reducing the use of quantitative tools; rather, it means aiming at discovering mathematical and statistical models that can take into account social and political parameters.

As of now, in fact, theoretical teachings and practical matters are completely out of kilter with each other. Economics, like any other social science, is created by people for other people. Hence, it withholds human virtues as much as its vices. Wrongdoings are commonplace and just because a law – be it economic, social, or political – works, it does not mean that it is right. Along similar lines, just because an economic theory has worked in the past, does not mean that it will fulfill any future needs.

Future social scientists, therefore, need to be prepared to work on the subtle difference between equity and equality and it is crystal-clear that modern economics cannot provide them with the necessary tools to face such a gigantic task. Rather than trying various (and not very successful) one-size-fits-all measures, universities should focus on offering specific trainings that encourage their students’ inclinations. This way, students can choose whether to follow a business-oriented career by applying to a business school, or to to continue towards a more academic path, in brand-new schools for social sciences.