S.O.S. Alternatives to Capitalism

S.O.S. Alternatives to Capitalism
Author: Richard Swift
Publisher: New Internationalist
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2014-04-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1780261713

With capitalism vulnerable and out-of-step in the wake of financial crises this book investigates the alternatives that are on offer—including socialism, anarchism, and deep ecology. It picks its way through the pockets of resistant thinking and emerges with paths to changing the world that rest less on rigid ideology imposed from above than on practical transformation from below. Richard Swift is former editor of New Internationalist magazine and author of the No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy. In 2011, he won the Daniel Singer Millenium Prize for an original essay which helps further socialist ideas.

Sos

Sos
Author: Richard Swift
Publisher:
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2016-11-17
Genre: Anarchism
ISBN: 9781771132992

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers' greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist. In this fully updated new edition Richard Swift examines the past shortcomings and present health of not one but many other paths to changing the world, including socialism, social democracy, anarchism, ecology, and degrowth. Combining the practical with the visionary, he shows that finding alternatives to capitalism is no longer an academic issue for the left - it is an urgent planetary necessity.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Degrowth and Sustainability

The No-Nonsense Guide to Degrowth and Sustainability
Author: Wayne Ellwood
Publisher: New Internationalist
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2014-03-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1780261276

This guide explores the idea of economic growth, tracing its history and questioning why it has become so unchallengeable and powerful when unlimited growth in a finite world is ultimately impossible. It illustrates how economics based on degrowth can be turned into a positive and how we can arrive at new levels of environmental sustainability without having turning the clock back to the Dark Ages. A title for anyone interested in economics, the psychology of consumerism and progressive change. Wayne Ellwood is former co-editor of New Internationalist magazine. He is author of the No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization (over fifty thousand sold).

Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times

Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times
Author: Ziauddin Sardar
Publisher: International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2019-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1642052604

Where will Muslim societies be tomorrow? The world is increasingly and constantly changing, making it hard to keep up. This makes the state much more dire and troublesome for those already marginalised – particularly Muslim societies. Normal is no longer capable of upholding the promise of tomorrow’s certainty. These are postnormal times. In this storm of ignorance and uncertainty, Muslim societies stand to lose the most. But this is not destiny. In the cultivation of a new type of literacy – futures literacy – there resides a hope. Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times offers an alternative where we can ‘rescue’ and decolonise our futures. Sardar, Serra, and Jordan take an open and plural approach to the future revealing the true potentials that lie before us. Through detailed analysis of contemporary trends, the road to destruction is revealed. Through identifying and exploring emerging issues, agency through options can allow for positive change. And in the extrapolation of these ideas into scenarios, the authors pave the way for us to navigate our own preferred futures. Their study challenges the reader to think about the future in a new way, redefining the monolithic future as three tomorrows (Extended Present, Familiar Futures, and Unthought Futures), along the way ever watchful for Black Swans, Black Elephants, and the illustrious Black Jellyfish that could disrupt the path ahead. The authors pull no punches in critically evaluating the possibilities and nightmares that could potentially befall Muslim societies. Through a display of creativity and imagination, this book looks beyond the conventional to illuminate impacts in the context of the complex, interconnected world we find ourselves in. This informative and enlightening text will push readers to see beyond popular, yet native notions of present and future. In the exposition of the reader’s ignorance and uncertainty, they will begin to look for the unthought and take agency in recolonising and navigating their preferred tomorrow.

A Future Beyond Growth

A Future Beyond Growth
Author: Haydn Washington
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2016-04-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317358341

There is a fundamental denial at the centre of why we have an environmental crisis – a denial that ignores that endless physical growth on a finite planet is impossible. Nature provides the ecosystem services that support our civilisation, thus making humanity unavoidably dependent upon it. However, society continues to ignore and deny this dependence. A Future Beyond Growth explores the reason why the endless growth economy is fundamentally unsustainable and considers ways in which society can move beyond this to a steady state economy. The book brings together some of the deepest thinkers from around the world to consider how to advance beyond growth. The main themes consider the deep problems of the current system and key aspects of a steady state economy, such as population; throughput and consumerism; ethics and equity; and policy for change. The policy section and conclusion bring together these various themes and indicates how we can move past the growth economy to a truly sustainable future. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of economics, sustainability and environmental studies in general.

Productivity and Prosperity

Productivity and Prosperity
Author: Karen R. Foster
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2016-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1487520573

In Productivity and Prosperity, Karen Foster zeroes in on the paradox of productivity: that it is the key to economic prosperity and yet its connection to well-being and median incomes has all but disappeared.

Anarchist Perspectives for Social Work

Anarchist Perspectives for Social Work
Author: Alexander William Sawatsky
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2024
Genre: Anarchism
ISBN: 019775046X

"This book is being written during a historical moment. I had found myself planning to write about this topic, of anarchism and its application to social work based in part on my own misgivings about what I believed to be the root of the problem of the social work paradox"--

Sick of the System

Sick of the System
Author: Between the Lines
Publisher: Between the Lines
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2020-02-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1771135298

Families left grieving; small businesses shuttered; communities in lockdown; precarious workers set adrift; health care workers stressed beyond endurance. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core. But the cracks already ran deep. Featuring essays on poverty, health care, incarceration, basic income, policing, Indigenous communities, and more, this anthology delivers a stinging rebuke of the pre-pandemic status quo and a stark exposé of the buried weaknesses in our social and political systems. As policy makers scramble to bail out corporations and preserve an unsustainable labour market, an even greater global catastrophe – in the form of ecological collapse, economic recession, and runaway inequality – looms large on the horizon. What can we do? From professors to poets, the authors of Sick of the System speak in one voice: We can turn our backs on “normal.” We can demand divestment, redistribution, and mutual aid. We can seize new forms of solidarity with both hands. As the world holds its breath, revolutionary ideas have an unprecedented chance to gain ground. There should be no going back.

Radical Transformation

Radical Transformation
Author: Kevin MacKay
Publisher: Between the Lines
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1771132612

“Radical Transformation is a tour de force.”– Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization Radical Transformation is a story about industrial civilization’s impending collapse, and about the possibilities of averting this fate. Human communities first emerged as egalitarian, democratic groups that existed in symbiotic relationship with their environments. Increasing complexity led to the emergence of oligarchy, in which societies became captive to the logic of domination, exploitation, and ecological destruction. The challenge facing us today is to build a movement that will radically transform civilization and once more align our evolutionary trajectory in the direction of democracy, equality, and ecological sustainability.