LIVING ECONOMIES FOR A LIVING PLANET
SUPPORTING ESSAYS
[ Parent Page ] [ Part I: INTRODUCTION ] [ Part II: PATHOLOGY ] [ Part III: SUCCESSION ] [ Part IV: AWAKENING ] [ Part V: COMMUNITY ] [ Part VI: LIVING ] [ SUPPORTING ESSAYS ] [ DIALOGUE ]
The essays referenced below were written to further develop
themes and issues raised in the web essay "Living Economies for a Living
Planet. Like the "Living Economies" essay they are in draft form and
subject to revision. New essays will be added to this list from time to time.
Each is written to supplement and extend arguments in the longer essay, not to
stand as an independent document.
Living
Economies: Lessons from Biology by Elisabet Sahtouris,
Ph.D. A visionary evolution biologist draws lessons from living systems
essential to distinguishing between health and pathology in economic systems and
institutions and to identifying the characteristics of healthy living
economies.
The Crisis and Challenge of Globalization:
Insights from Physics by Hans-Peter Duerr,
Emeritus Director,
Professor, Max-Planck Institut für Physik,
Munich. An eminent physicist makes the case that the culture and
institutions of the global economy are grounded in outmoded concepts of 19th
century physics. Physics has since redefined reality in fundamental ways, but
human social and economic institutions remain dangerously out of date. More
contemporary insights from physics hold a key to resolving the resulting global
crisis.
Awakening Cultural Consciousness
by David C. Korten based on Elisabet Sahtouris. Examines how culture shapes perception in the most
literal sense. Makes the case that the awakening of cultural consciousness
described in Part III: Awakening Consciousness
is an important evolutionary advance toward making cultural regeneration a
conscious, self-aware process — an essential step toward moving from an Era of
Empire to an Era of Community.
Corporate Predators of the Suicide
Economy by Victor Bremson, Retired Entrepreneur and Independent
Business Manager. Documents through two personal case studies the predatory
behavior of mega-corporations with a legal mandate to serve the financial
interests of absentee owners without regard to human or environmental
consequences.
Globalization as a Natural
Evolutionary Process by Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. Argues that
globalization in terms of a life serving advance in planetary communication and
cooperation is a natural evolutionary process. The kind of globalization
being advanced by market-driven capitalism, however, is not a natural process
because it suppresses the natural self-organizing processes of people and
communities and places the interest of money ahead of the needs of life.
Seattle
Area: Elements of a Living Economy
by Victor Bremson. An initial inventory of enterprises, organizations, and
associations in the Seattle area that constitute elements of a living economy
that illuminates the potentials already in one urban area. This is a work in
progress prepared under the PCDF Living Economies Program Case Studies Project. As more information is collected the inventory will be extended,
descriptions of individual initiatives will be elaborated, and there will be
discussion of the ways in which individual initiatives are linking together
toward creating the web of a true living economy.
[Additional essays will be added.]
Last revised July 20, 2001. First posted July 18, 2001
Living
Economies for a Living Planet
PCDF
Living
Economies Program
PCDF
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