Climate change, peak oil and all the other unfolding crises associated with pollution and resource depletion are all symptoms of one problem. There has been a fundamental change in the relationship between people and the Earth. We no longer have new frontiers to expand into when resources get scarce or our waste becomes intolerable. This change marks the maturity of the human species. Well-being now requires an equally fundamental change in how we manage our societies.
As long as the goal of expanding production and consumption is considered legitimate, we are in danger of overshooting planetary limits and collapsing. When sustainability gains legitimacy, as our primary goal, the possibility will emerge for evolving a mature social form, capable of long-term well-being. It is a...
A major new report has been released by the Commission on Growth and Development, which is composed of 2 Nobel laureates and 19 policymakers. The report refocuses development thinking on the question of how to achieve economic growth. Since many seem to have forgotten the need for growth to achieve development goals, this report is very welcome. The report identifies five common ingredients of high-growth economies over the long term:
1. They fully exploited the world economy
2. They maintained macroeconomic stability
3. They mustered high rates of saving and investment
4. They let markets allocate resources
5. They had committed, credible, and capable governments”
These are five very sensible points. It is, for instance, important to recognize as the report does that globalization is...
As in a pendulum movement, the reflections about the impact of ICTs in the Economy have swung from enthusiasm to realism and back to optimism, being each of these states really subjective and implying a wide range of shades within.
After a first period of cyberoptimism, people that “wanted to see” and people that thought “waiting to see” was a bad strategy because “it will then be too late”, followed a timespan where scientists — mainly economists — stuck to strict evidence from reality, being their main conclusion that the more you spend/invest in ICTs the more they affect both the share and the growth of the GDP — an obvious conclusion to many, I’d dare say, as it’ll happen with sweets if you spent half your national budget in......
In
Information Society,
Economics,
Digital Divide,
ICT4D,
ict,
development,
labour,
gdp,
labor,
market,
network society,
new economy,
economy,
growth