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Books to Read : General
The Fabric of Hope. An Essay: Glenn E. TinderWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0802848575, 9780802848574. 226 pages.
This volume in the EUSLR series is addressed to everyone interested in hope, regardless of their religious or philosophical beliefs. Glenn Tinder, one of the most astute and creative contemporary thinkers in the US, probes the failure of modern, secular hope and shows, with great sensitivity and openness, why the tenets of Christian faith offer a true and meaningful source for hope amid the widespread distress, confusion, and despondency of contemporary life.
Being Consumed. Economics and Christian Desire: W. T. Cavanaugh.
Eerdmans, 2008. 115 pages. ISBN 9780802845610
To cite Cavanaugh's own words: This book will be, I hope, a contribution to a kind of theological microeconomics. Rather than blessing or damning the free market' as such, I want to focus our attention on concrete Christian attempts to discern and create economic practices, spaces, and transactions that are truly free (p. viii). This is perhaps one of the most important books on Christian faith and economics in recent years. See Houston Catholic Worker Vol. XXIX, No. 2, March-April 2009 for a formal review (http://www.cjd.org/paper/cavanau.html): Cavanaugh employs and interweaves effortlessly the insights of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, von Balthasar, and Pope John Paul II, teaching us how to transform the free market into a true tool for justice and love. Cavanaugh is not sparing in his criticism of free market economics, but true to the spirit of Christianity, he believes that grace permeates all forms of natures. Accordingly, Christians are called to take seriously their belief in human freedom, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist and commit themselves to transforming and completing the formal principles of the free market and to remedying its material deficiencies.
The Heart's Desire. A Guide to Personal Fulfilment: J. Houston.
Oxford: Lion, 1992. ISBN 0745922325 / 9780745922324 / 0-7459-2232-5
James Houston, emeritus Professor of Spiritual Theology (Regent College, Vancouver) helps us trace the consequences of pursuing things that can never satisfy. He awakens in our hearts the true desire for an authentic relationship with God that alone can fulfil our soul's hunger.
Collapse. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: J. Diamond.
Penguin, 2005. ISBN-10: 0143036556. ISBN-13: 978-0143036555. 575 pages
From Amazon Review: Jared Diamond's Collapse... is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster... in general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a sceptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --Jennifer Buckendorff
Something New Under the Sun. An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (Global Century Series): J. R. McNeil
W.W. Norton & Co, 2001. ISBN-10: 0393321835. ISBN-13: 978-0393321838. 416 pages.
From Amazon Review: J.R. McNeill, a professor of history at Georgetown University, visits the annals of the past century only to return to the present with bad news: in that 100-year span, he writes, the industrialized and developing nations of the world have wrought damage to nearly every part of the globe. That much seems obvious to even the most casual reader, but what emerges, and forcefully, from McNeill's pages is just how extensive that damage has been.
For example, he writes, "soil degradation in one form or another now affects one-third of the world's land surface," larger by far than the world's cultivated areas. Things are worse in some places than in others; McNeill observes that Africa is "the only continent where food production per capita declined after 1960," due to the loss of productive soil. McNeill's litany continues: the air in most of the world's cities is perilously unhealthy; the drinking water across much of the planet is growing ever more polluted; the human species is increasingly locked "in a rigid and uneasy bond with modern agriculture," which trades the promise of abundant food for the use of carcinogenic pesticides and fossil fuels.
The environmental changes of the last century, McNeill closes by saying, are on an unprecedented scale, so much so that we can scarcely begin to fathom their implications. We can, however, start to think about them, and McNeill's book is a helpful primer. --Gregory McNamee
Managing Without Growth. Slower by Design, not Disaster: P. Victor
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008. ISBN-10: 184844205X, ISBN-13: 978-1848442054. 260 pages.
Amazon Product Description: At last, Managing without Growth, a book that puts economics in its proper place within the real world and points the direction we must go in confronting the ecological crisis of the planet. As an economist, environmental studies professor Peter Victor is eminently qualified for the task. He examines some of our most fundamental assumptions and beliefs about the market, pricing, free trade and growth, prosperity and happiness that too often preclude a serious consideration of the environment and economy. His book couldn't be a more timely and important analysis of the destructive consequences of aspiring to endless growth and downloading the costs onto nature itself. He makes a powerful case for the need to work deliberately towards a steady state economy where the real world of the biosphere should set the limits to our activity. Victor's book should be at the basis for our discussion of these critical issues today - David Suzuki, broadcaster and activist.
Peter Victor analyses the critical policy question of our time, how to manage our economy equitably and efficiently without growing beyond biophysical limits. He reasons carefully and rigorously, yet pulls no punches in drawing conclusions that some will consider radical. A superb book!- Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland, US
For a full review refer to Derek Paul at www.ethicalmarkets.com/2009/02/18/managing-without-growth-slower-by-design-not-disaster-by-peter-victor/
Hope and Memory: T. Todorov
Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN-10: 0691096589. ISBN-13: 978-0691096582. 376 pages.
Considers the structural nature of evil, the human propensity for it, and it's relationship to ideas of the good. Tzvetan Todorov's subject in this meditation on totalitarianism and democracy in the 20th century.
Amazon Product Description: Both a political history and a moral critique of the twentieth century, this is a personal and impassioned book from one of Europe's most outstanding intellectuals. Identifying totalitarianism as the major innovation of the twentieth century, Tzvetan Todorov examines the struggle between this system and democracy and its effects on human life and consciousness. Totalitarianism managed to impose itself because, more than any other political system, it played on people's need for the absolute: it fed their hope to endow life with meaning by taking part in the construction of a paradise on earth. As a result, millions of people lost their lives in the name of a higher good. While democracy eventually won the struggle against totalitarianism in much of the world, democracy itself is not immune to the pitfall of do-goodery: moral correctness at home and atomic or "humanitarian" bombs abroad... This book preserves the memory of the past as we move into the twenty-first century--arguing eloquently that we must place the past at the service of a just future.
The Vocation of Business. Social Justice in the Marketplace: J. Medaille.
Continuum Books, 2007. ISBN-10: 0826428096, ISBN-13: 978-0826428097. 359 pages.
Amazon Review: "In this remarkable book John MÈdaille succeeds in showing how the more radical elements in Catholic social teaching can be turned into really practical projects for building an alternative to capitalism. He demonstrates that the key is to alter the culture of business and the corporation in order to ensure that political and economic purposes, distributive and corrective justice, become once again integrated, as classical philosophy and Christian theology alike demand. The Vocation of Business supplies us at last with some keys for turning the Christian critique of liberalism into a new form of effective practice." -- John Milbank, University of Nottingham
See also review by Angelo Matera in the Catholic Worker http://www.cjd.org/paper/medaille.html): In...The Vocation of Business, John Medaille, a businessman who teaches "Social Justice for Business Students" at the University of Dallas, makes a comprehensive case for introducing values such as justice and equity into business practices by applying the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
This is one of the definitive books on Business and Catholic Social Teaching, even if some not entirely convinced Medaille accomplished his goal of bridging the gap between moral theory and business practice.
Economics Today. A Christian Critique: D. Hay
Regent College Publishing, 2004. ISBN-10: 1573832847, ISBN-13: 978-1573832847. 340 pages.
Amazon Book Description: "Economics has assumed a dominant role in shaping our modern world. In this book, Donald Hay develops a critique of economics today in the light of a Christian understanding of truth. The author's purpose is to equip the reader with arguments and principles with which to confront new economic problems, as well as to analyse our present situation. Case studies take the arguments and apply them to particular areas of economic analysis. Amongst influential cases illuminated by Donald Hay's study are the free market of capitalism and the planned economy of socialism. He analyses macro-economic policy in the advanced industrial economies, the vexed question of relations between rich and poor nations, and the consequences of economic growth. This book gives an exposition of economics as it is practised in the West. It also provides an insight into the underlying beliefs of economists when they pronounce on public policy issues which affect all of our lives. Donald Hay is a Fellow and Tutor in Economics at Jesus College, Oxford, and a Reader in the Church of England."
The Shock Doctrine. Rise of Disaster Capitalism: N. Klein
Metropolitan Book, 2007. ISBN-10: 0805079831. ISBN-13: 978-0805079838. 576 pages
From Amazon Review: Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times... There's little doubt Klein's book...will stir the ire of the right and corporate America. It's also true that Klein's assertions are coherent, comprehensively researched and footnoted, and she makes a very credible case. --Kim Hughes
From Publishers Weekly: The neo-liberal economic policies privatization, free trade, slashed social spending that the Chicago School and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted on the world are catastrophic in two senses, argues this vigorous polemic. Because their results are disastrous depressions, mass poverty, private corporations looting public wealth, by the author's accounting their means must be cataclysmic, dependent on political upheavals and natural disasters as coercive pretexts for free-market reforms the public would normally reject. Journalist Klein (No Logo) chronicles decades of such disasters, including the Chicago School makeovers launched by South American coups; the corrupt sale of Russia's state economy to oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the privatization of New Orleans's public schools after Katrina; and the seizure of wrecked fishing villages by resort developers after the Asian tsunami. Klein's economic and political analyses are not always meticulous. Likening free-market shock therapies to electroshock torture, she conflates every misdeed of right-wing dictatorships with their economic programs and paints a too simplistic picture of the Iraq conflict as a struggle over American-imposed neo-liberalism. Still, much of her critique hits home, as she demonstrates how free-market ideologues welcome, and provoke, the collapse of other people's economies. The result is a powerful populist indictment of economic orthodoxy. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
For David Hilfiker's full review of this book refer to www.davidhilfiker.com/docs/Economics/The%20Shock%20Doctrine%20-%20review.htm
Here is a short film that summarizes the thesis of this controversial book: www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mE71OGVN2PXYZ/ref=ent_fb_link
Economics As Religion. From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond: R. H. Nelson
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN-10: 0271020954, ISBN-13: 978-0271020952. 378 pages.
From Amazon Description: An insightful exploration of the powerful role that economic belief plays in our modern society as a secular religion that serves many of the same functions as early Christian and other religions did in their time.
From Amazon Review: "In economic research, as with all systematic thought, there is no such thing as unguided observation. Economists interpret events and make predictions through the distortive lenses of paradigms. In this book, which draws fascinating parallels between economic paradigms and religious dogma, Robert Nelson offers a critical survey of modern economic thought that is as informative as it is provocative. Economics as Religion will be of interest not only to economists but also to anyone eager to know more about how scientific disciplines operate." - Timur Kuran, University of Southern California"
Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary. Conversations between a Radical Democrat and a Christian: S. Hauerwas, R. Coles
Cascade Books, 2008. ISBN 10: 1-55635-297-2. ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-297-3. 378 pages.
Book Description: In Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, theologian Stanley Hauerwas and political theorist Romand Coles reflect about possibilities and practices of radical democracy and radical ecclesia that take form in the textures of relational care for the radical ordinary. They seek to shift political and theological imaginations beyond the limits of contemporary political formations (such as global capitalism, the mega-state, and empire), which they argue are based upon both the denial and production of death.
Hauerwas and Coles call us to a revolutionary politics of "wild patience" that seeks transformation through attentive practices of listening, relationship-building, and a careful tending to places, common goods, and diverse possibilities for flourishing... The authors argue that there is a strong relation between hope and imagination, as well as between imagination and the encounter with and memory of those who have lived with receptive generosity toward the radical ordinary. Hence, throughout this book they think extensively in relation to specific lives and practices: from Ella Baker and the early Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizing efforts for beloved community and civil rights, to L'Arche communities founded by Jean Vanier, to contemporary faith-based radical democratic organizing efforts in dozens of cities by the Industrial Areas Foundation. Pushing and pulling each other into new and insightful journeys of political imagination, this conversation between a radical Christian and a radical democratic trickster spurs us toward a politics that acknowledges, tends to, and enacts the powers of the radical ordinary.
Book Endorsement: "Romand Coles and Stanley Hauerwas have probed the practices of radical democracy and radical Christianity, respectively, for some years. Here they present a series of exchanges in which each is electrified both shocked and enlivened by currents from the other. This book is indispensable for those seeking to animate democratic spirituality."William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University, author of Capitalism and Christianity, American Style (2008)
Christ and Empire: J. Rieger
Fortress Press, 2007. ISBN 9780800620387. 244 pages.
Book Description: Although we loathe admitting it, Christians have often, through crusade, conquest, and commerce, used the name and power of Christ to promote and justify political, economic, and even military gain. Rieger's ambitious and faith-filled project chips away at the colonial legacy of Christology to find the authentic Christ or rather the many authentic depictions of Christ in history and theology that survive our self-serving domestications. Against the seeming inevitability of globalized unfairness, Rieger holds up a "stumbling block" that confounds even empire.
Book Endorsement: "In this stunning book, Joerg Rieger reveals the hidden grammar of Christology by elucidating how theological depictions of Christ have been laden with colonial biases. Yet he also shows that the Christ symbol cannot be simply domesticated and offers resources to construct a hope-filled Christology to address the empires of our day."Kwok Pui-lan, Episcopal Divinity School, author of Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology
"A work of fierce luminosity; if classic didn't evoke the imperial aura that this Christology dispels, we could announce one. Christ and Empire is a stunning sequel to Christ and Culture, with a more complex Christ to resist the more manifest empire in his name." Catherine Keller, Drew University, author of God and Empire
The Globalization Reader: F.J. Lechner (Ed), J. Boli (Ed).
Wiley-Blackwell, 3rd edition, 2007. ISBN-10: 1405155531, ISBN-13: 978-1405155533. 520 pages.
Book Review: "This third edition conveys the complexity, importance and contentiousness of globalisation... It offers a provocative assessment of economic globalisation, examines the role of media and religion in cultural globalisation, and explores the link between environmentalism and the globalisation of social problems."- Development Resources Review
The Case Against the Global Economy. And for a Turn Toward the Local: J. Mander (Ed), Edward Goldsmith (Ed)
Sierra Club Books, 1997. ISBN-10: 0871568659, ISBN-13: 978-0871568656. 560 pages.
Amazon Book Review: Forty-three essays vital to democracy & the human species! A thorough roast of the Corporate State, the Global Economy, GATT, NAFTA, the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, and our own ignorance to the consequences we will suffer at the hands of the New Fascism. This book is another formidable brick in the foundation of an emerging sub-culture that seeks a viable human future. The underlying message throughout these essays is that we either involve ourselves in our communities---strive toward local sustainability, nurture the ecology of our place, reject bureaucratic centralization, be it governmental, or corporate---or we allow the environmental destruction, the social disintegration, and the bankrupt morality of the profit-driven limitless growth maniacs to reach its inevitable cancer-like conclusion. The authors here share an awareness that we might well be facing the end of democracy, unbearable degradation to the quality of our air, water, food, and lives, and ultimately the collapse of our entire civilization. But all is not Doom & Gloom! We are reminded that corporations only exist because we allow them to, legally and economically, and the politicians they own are, at his point, still elected by us. There is optimism that the rapidly growing numbers of the displaced, disenfranchised, and disenchanted will unify, informed and wisened by their loss, or love, of place, and their common experience outside the confines of ideology and education manipulated by corporate-owned media. We are also reminded that on a global scale, the grotesquely rich & economically powerful, are far in the minority, if we so choose, we the people, the vast majority, can still throw the bums out! ... -- Jim Otterstrom
Right Relationship. Building a Whole Earth Economy: P. G. Brown, G. Garver
Berrett-Koehler, 2009. ISBN-10: 1576757625, ISBN-13: 978-1576757628. 216 pages.
Amazon Book Description: Our current economic system which assumes endless growth and limitless potential wealth flies in the face of the fact that the earth's resources are finite. The result is increasing destruction of the natural world and growing, sometimes lethal, tension between rich and poor, global north and south. Trying to fix problems piecemeal is not the solution. We need a comprehensive new vision of an economy that can serve people and all of life's commonwealth.
Peter G. Brown and Geoffrey Garver use the core Quaker principle of right relationship interacting in a way that is respectful to all and that aids the common good as the foundation for a new economic model. Right Relationship poses five basic questions: What is an economy for? How does it work? How big is too big? What's fair? And how can it best be governed? Brown and Garver expose the antiquated, short-sighted, and downright dangerous assumptions that underlie our current answers to these questions, as well as the shortcomings of many current reform efforts. They propose new answers that combine an acute awareness of ecological limits with a fundamental focus on fairness and a concern with the spiritual, as well as material, well-being of the human race. Brown and Garver describe new forms of global governance that will be needed to get and keep the economy in right relationship. Individual citizens can and must play a part in bringing this relationship with life and the world into being.
Ultimately the economy, as indeed life itself, is a series of interconnected relationships. An economy based on the idea of right relationship offers not only the promise of a bountiful future but also an opportunity to touch the fullness of human meaning and, some would say, the presence of the Divine.
Deep Economy. The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future: B. McKibben
Owl, 2008. ISBN-10: 0805087222, ISBN-13: 978-0805087222. 272 pages.
Publishers Weekly: Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, McKibben (The End of Nature) argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. For example, if the Chinese owned cars in the same numbers as Americans, there would be 1.1 billion more vehicles on the road untenable in a world that is rapidly running out of oil and clean air. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas. Rather then promoting accelerated cycles of economic expansion a mindset that has brought the world to the brink of environmental disaster we should concentrate on creating localized economies: community-scale power systems instead of huge centralized power plants; co-housing communities instead of sprawling suburbs. He gives examples of promising ventures of this type, such as a community-supported farm in Vermont and a community biosphere reserve, or large national park like area, in Himalayan India, but some of the ideas local currencies as supplements to national money, for example seem overly optimistic. Nevertheless, McKibben's proposals for new, less growth-centered ways of thinking about economics are intriguing, and offer hope that change is possible. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Global Capitalism. Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century: Jeffry A. Frieden
W. W. Norton & Co, 2005/7. ISBN 978-0-393-32981-0. 576 pages
"Magisterial history...one of the most comprehensive histories of modern capitalism yet written."New York Times Book Review
In 1900 international trade reached unprecedented levels and the world's economies were more open to one another than ever before. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet the entire edifice collapsed in a few months in 1914.
Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. Jeffry A. Frieden's insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, the divisions of the Cold War world, and the turn again toward global integration at the end of the century.
For a peer review of the book refer www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/meissner/frieden.pdf
The Mind and the Market. Capitalism in Modern European Thought: Jerry Z. Muller
Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. ISBN-10: 0375414118. 512 pages
Global markets destroy local cultures. Corporate greed breeds poverty wages. Catholic University history professor Muller argues, these were the concerns of European intellectuals as they witnessed the rise of modern capitalism. Even the market's great advocates, from Adam Smith to Joseph Schumpeter, feared its effects, Muller says. The market promoted individual liberties, self-interest and wealth accumulation. But the market also threatened to unleash avarice, wreak havoc on traditions, and destroy any sense of the common good. Muller provides trenchant analyses of obscure and well-known students of capitalism. None of his subjects was an economist narrowly defined; all were "moral philosophers" concerned with the orderly and positive development of human society and the efficient production and distribution of goods. This is an historical commentary on the long-standing debate over the cultural effects of capitalism, a debate between the advocates (Voltaire, Adam Smith, Burke, Hegel, Weber, Schumpeter, and Hayek) and the critics (Rousseau, Marx, Arnold, Sombart, Lukacs, Keynes, and Marcuse).
Refer to Fred Stahl's right of centre review of this book at www.amazon.com/review/R1L9GHVZZO03DB/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day: Glyn Davies
University of Wales Press, 2002. ISBN 0 7083 1717 0 (PB). 720 pages.
"If you want a chronological history of money, here it is. If the development of banking is required, that is available." -Banking World (Banking World ) ". . . a masterful examination . . . It's a helter-skelter ride through history, swooping and touching on civilization and how they did business, funded their treasuries and paid their servants including armies . . ." -World Money Laundering Report (World Money Laundering Report ) (in Amazon Review)
Predictably Irrational. The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions: Dan Ariely
Harper/HarperCollins, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0061353239. 280 pages.
Ariely challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought. He unmasks the subtle but powerful tricks that our minds play on us. Ariely is not out to overthrow rationality. Instead, he wants to replace the rational economic manî model with one that more accurately describes the real laws that drive human choices.
See NYT review of the book by D. Berreby www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/books/review/Berreby-t.html
"Another sign that times are changing is Predictably Irrational,î a book that both exemplifies and explains this shift in the cultural winds. Here, Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., tells us that life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun.î ...Obviously, this sly and lucid book is not about your grandfather's dismal science. Arielyís trade is behavioral economics, which is the study, by experiments, of what people actually do when they buy, sell, change jobs, marry and make other real-life decisions." - D. Berreby
Faithful Economics. The Moral Worlds of a Neutral Science: James W. Henderson and John Pisciotta
Baylor University Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-1932792225. 155 pages.
Excerpt from a book review of it in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion:
"Perhaps the largest gathering ever of economists assembled to pursue the relationship between their work as economists and their profession as Christians occurred at Baylor University's 2002 conference on Christianity and Economics: Integrating Faith and Learning in Economic Scholarship.î A conventional array of concurrent sessions, using the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to frame economically related policy emphases and/or theoretical constructs (hereinafter FDI for faith-discipline integration), was complemented by seven plenary addresses. Reworked versions of these addresses comprise the chapters of Faithful Economics; an Introduction and Conclusion by the conference organizers and FE editors complete the book."
See the book's Table of Contents here:
www.baylor.edu/baylorpress/index.php?id=26340&Book_ID=44
Suicide of the West: Richard Koch, Chris Smith
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006 ISBN 0826490239, 9780826490230 198 pages
In this controversial book, Richard Koch and Chris Smith identify six key pillars of Western civilization: Christianity, optimism, science, economic growth, liberalism and individualism. They show how these ideas have suffered a century of sustained attack from within and no longer inspire or unite the West, making a drift towards collective suicide appear inevitable. The work is a polemic and leaves the reader with not much hope or alternatives to the current capitalist liberal market economy other than one where personal morality and responsibility is better exercised. [ref]
For a neo-liberal review of the book refer www.iea.org.uk/record.jsp?type=pressArticle&ID=303
The Long Emergency. Surviving The Converging Catastrophes Of The Twenty-first Century: James Howard Kunstler
Grove Press, 2006, ISBN 0802142494, 9780802142498, 324 pages
Kunstler is one of the great commentators on American space and place.
This book explores the consequences of a world oil production peak, coinciding with the forces of climate change, resurgent diseases, water scarcity, global economic instability and warfare to cause chaos for future American generations.
What sets The Long Emergency apart from numerous other books on this theme is its comprehensive sweep its powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change along with a fascinating attempt to peer into a chaotic future. And Kunstler is such a compelling, fast-paced and sometimes eloquent writer that the book is hard to put down.î --David Ehrenfeld The American Scientist
The indictment of suburbia and the car culture that the author presented in The Geography of Nowhere turns apocalyptic in this vigorous, if overwrought, jeremiad. Kunstler notes signs that global oil production has peaked and will soon dwindle, and argues in an eye-opening, although not entirely convincing, analysis that alternative energy sources cannot fill the gap, especially in transportation. The result will be a Dark Age in which "the center does not hold" and "all bets are off about civilization's future." Absent cheap oil, auto-dependent suburbs and big cities will collapse, along with industry and mechanized agriculture; serfdom and horse-drawn carts will stage a comeback; hunger will cause massive "die-back"; otherwise "impotent" governments will engineer "designer viruses" to cull the surplus population; and Asian pirates will plunder California. Kunstler takes a grim satisfaction in this prospect, which promises to settle his many grudges against modernity. A "dazed and crippled America," he hopes, will regroup around walkable, human-scale towns; organic local economies of small farmers and tradesmen will replace an alienating corporate globalism; strong bonds of social solidarity will be reforged; and our heedless, childish culture of consumerism will be forced to grow up. Kunstler's critique of contemporary society is caustic and scintillating as usual, but his prognostications strain credibility.î Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Mission, Inc. The Practitioner's Guide to Social Enterprise: K. Lynch and J. Walls, Jr.
Social Venture Network Series, 2009. ISBN 9781576754795
The popularity of social enterprises has exploded in recent years ñ this is the authoritative guide to starting and running one. It offers practical, from-the-trenches advice from two leading social entrepreneurs on confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities social enterprises present.
The Violence of Love: Oscar Romero
Compiled and translated by James R. Brockman, S.J.
Foreword by Henri Nouwen.
Maryknoll: Orbis, 2004.
214 pages
From the stirring foreword by Henri Nouwen to the last page of Romero's text, this powerful little volume of eloquent, simple meditations never wastes a word. Yet the real depth of Romero's message lies not in his words themselves, poetic as they are. It lies in the life they give witness to: the hard life of a man who was martyred for his faith in a late capitalist market economy that had gone awry. Thus The Violence of Love gives more insight, perhaps, than any biographical account of his life.î [ref]
During his three years as archbishop of San Salvador, ”scar Romero became known as a fearless defender of the poor and suffering. His work on behalf of the oppressed earned him the admiration and love of the peasants he served, a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, honorary degrees from abroad - and finally, an assassin's bullet on account of his outspokenness.î [ref]
Romero was martyred for his insistence that following Christ cannot be relegated to the spiritual realm. He was committed to human rights, to innovative implementation of the option for the poor, to the Church, and to the active role of the laity. He had a deep and abiding faith that seemingly insoluble problems can be resolved by following the Spirit He did not die in vain the people of Central America say his spirit lives on in them. As their struggle for justice and dignity intensifies, his words take on renewed urgency. [ref]
Romero is honored by other religious denominations of Christendom, including the Church of England. He is one of the ten 20th century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy by the Europe-based magazine A Different View.î
For book review refer to www.latinotheology.org/node/16
Download the e-book free at www.plough.com/ebooks/ViolenceOfLove.html
Oscar Romero. Reflections on His Life and Writings Modern Spiritual Masters Series: Oscar Romero, Marie Dennis, Renny Golden, Scott Wright
Orbis 06/00 Maryknoll
ISBN: 1-57075-309-1
As a biography, this book is a mere introduction only 127 pp but a good one of his life.
In describing Romero's life the authors have culled some of his most poignant words of prophetic power from his homilies, diaries, letters, and public talks. An example: "Some want to keep a Gospel so disembodied that it doesn't get involved at all in the world it must save. Christ is now in history. Christ is in the womb of the people. Christ is now bringing about a new heaven and a new earth." [ref]
Economics for the Common Good. Two Centuries of Economic Thought in the Humanistic Tradition: Mark Lutz
Routledge, 1999
ISBN: 978-0-415-14313-4
320 pages
An accessible introduction to economics in terms of human rather than material welfare. In the face of increasing marketisation, declining community and growing inequality, the author argues the case for a broader, more sensitive economic science. Building on a venerable social economics tradition the volume diverts away from mainstream neo-liberal economic thinking. It proposes a more rational economic order and develops new principles of economic policy. The issues covered include: the inadequacy of individualistic economics in guiding policy formation, a logical critique of economic rationality, rethinking of the modern business corporation, a critique of modern trade theory and unregulated international competition, and how standard economic theory encourages major ecological problems.î [ref]
Economics for the Common Good introduces social economic concepts and demonstrates their continuing relevance to the ills of an increasingly global society. In approaching problems generally conceived to be purely economic, from a social and ecological perspective centred on basic material needs, human dignity, and the laws of physics, the author explores the vital interface between economics, ethics and politics. The reader is challenged to look beyond the confines of mainstream economic thinking to find new solutions to some of the fundamental issues facing us today. [ref]
For a review of the book refer www.feasta.org/documents/feastareview/whelan.htm
Heaven is Not My Home. Learning to Live in God's Creation: Paul Marshall, Lela Hamner Gilbert
Lightning Source Inc, 1999
ISBN 0849990408, 9780849990403
284 pages
This book encapsulates and summarizes many who struggle with Western Christianity. That is if one's faith is true, then why is it that it seems only to speak of what is beyond this life? Is there not meaning to life here beyond mere sin management? Is there not inherent value in work itself, or in art, or even in play? This book finds God in even the simplest and "menial" of tasks not just those so-called higher things associated with church and "spiritual" life. It lays to rest the dualist heresy many evangelicals live by. [ref]
Reviews of the book:
If the Christian church can be called a sleeping giant, than this book is without a doubt its wake-up call. Using very clear language, vivid description, and intriguing personal stories, this book drives home the point that Christians are called to be at home in God's world, and about the King's business, rather than always attempting to escape this world. The impressive endorsements by notable figures such as evangelical theologian J.I. Packer ring true as one reads chapter after surprising and enjoyable chapter. This book will help the church discover a very old and orthodox truth: Christ frees us up to be fully human and radically engaged in realizing in the here and now his age-old purposes for his world. No, it will not all burn in the end as some millennium fear-mongers would have us believe. God has not fashioned the works of his hands to end in futility, but to be infused with meaning and purpose. Rather with Christ's return, our world--perfected with its redeemed and transformed people, animals, institutions, and ALL that God has made ñ will indeed blaze brilliantly with the glory of its Creator.î Stephen Lazarus (Centre for Public Justice)
This book is one of the best introductions to Christian worldview thinking I have read and should prompt one to more robust reflection on the many ways one's commitment to Christ should form all of life. Marshall's treatment is thoroughly biblical, and he writes in an engaging style. He first explains the Reformed pattern of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation and then explores its impact on our learning, our work, our rest, and our play, as well as its implications for how we think about the natural world, politics, the arts, and technology, among other topics. Throughout, he utilizes clear illustrations and helpful applications that make the biblical principles concrete. (For example, his discussion about how to think about the way we dress is alone worth the price of admission.) All told, Heaven Is Not My Home is an excellent catalyst for thinking Christianly about God's world. Gregory Dunn
Also refer to "Heaven Is Not Our Home: The bodily resurrection is the good news of the gospel and thus our social and political mandate" by N. T. Wright (Mar 08) www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/april/13.36.html
The Caux Round Table Book List
www.cauxroundtable.org/index.cfm?&menuid=51&parentid=4
The Caux Round Table is offers a selection of pertinent readings for incorporation into the study and teaching of responsible capitalism. Their recommended books and readings are placed under the categories, General Theory, Seven CRT Principles, Six Stakeholders Constituencies of Business, Principled Business Leadership and Global Poverty.
Investors Circle Book List
www.investorscircle.net/resources/book-list
Books are listed here by Investors' Circle as seminal works in its field. This list ranges from nuts-and-bolts business, to the personal journeys of leaders in the responsible business movement, to visionary overviews of how to build a sustainable economy
Regent College (Vancouver, CA) Capitalism Project Book List
capitalismproject.org/category/book-reviews/
Books referred to in Regent College (Vancouver) Capitalism Project include:
Hay, Donald A. Economics Today: A Christian Critique, Leicester: Apollos/Inter-Varsity Press, 1989. (300 pp).
Bakan, Joel, The Corporation: the Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, New York:Free Press, 2004.
Becker, G.S., An Economic Approach to Human Behaviour, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Bell, Daniel. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
Berger, Peter L. Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change. Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1974.
Berger, Peter L. The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions About Prosperity, Equality, and Liberty. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
Buckley, P, and Casson, M., “Economics as an Imperialist Social Science,” Human Relations, Vol. 46, No 9, (1993), pp. 1035-1052.
Centisimus Annus, John Paul II, Centisimus Annus, Boston: St Paul Books, 1991 and also in O’Brien, David J. and Thomas A.Shannon (eds.) Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1992.
Cavanaugh, William T., Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.
Claar, Victor and Klay, Robin, Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices, Grand Rapids, MI: InterVarsity Press, 2007.
Daly, Herman, Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1962.
————— "The methodology of positive economics," reprinted in Hahn F. and Hollis M (eds), Philosophy and Economic Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Friedman, Thomas, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, New York: Anchor, 2000.
Friedman, Thomas, The World is Flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century, New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Gay, Craig. With Liberty or Justice for Whom?: The Recent Evangelical Debate Over Capitalism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.
Gay, Craig, Cash Values: Money and the Erosion of Meaning in Today’s Society, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.
Gilder, George. Wealth and Poverty. New York: Basic Books, 1981.
Gray, John, False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, New York: The New Press, 1998.
Goudzwaard, Bob, Capitalism and Progress: A Diagnosis of Western Society, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.
Griffiths, Brian, Morality and the Marketplace: Christian alternatives to capitalism and socialism, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.
————— The Creation of Wealth, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984.
Hay, Donald, “What Does the Lord Require? Three Statements on Christian Faith and Economic Life’, in Schlossberg, Herbert et al (eds.), Christianity and Economics in the Post-Cold War Era: The Oxford Declaration and Beyond, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994, pp146-160.
Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953.
Heilbroner, Robert L. The Nature and Logic of Capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1985.
Heilbroner, Robert L. 21st Century Capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993.
Heslam, Peter (ed), Globalisation and the Good, London: SPCK, 2004.
Kristol, Irving. Two Cheers for Capitalism. New York, 1978.
Kutner, Robert. Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics: an introductory volume, London: MacMillan, eighth edition 1920, first published 1890.
Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. New York: The Modern Library, 1906.
Nelson, Robert H. Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond. Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2002.
Neuhaus, Richard John. Doing Well and Doing Good: The Challenge to the Christian Capitalist. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Novak, Michael. The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
Oxford Declaration on Christian Faith and Economics (1990), reprinted in Schlossberg, Herbert et al (eds.), Christianity and Economics in the Post-Cold War Era: The Oxford Declaration and Beyond, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994, pp.11-30.
Richardson, J. David, "Frontiers in Economics and Christian Scholarship," Christian Scholar's Review, Vol. XVII, No. 4, (June 1988).
Robbins, Lionel, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, (London: Macmillan, 1932).
Schluter, Michael, "Relational Market Economics," Journal of the Association of Christian Economists, No. 13, (1992), pp.48-61.
Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism, & Democracy. New York: Harper & Row, 1947.
Sider, Ronald. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005.
Simmel, George. The Philosophy of Money. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.
Smith, Ian, "God and Economics," in Carson, D.A. and Woodbridge, John D. (eds), God and Culture: Essays in Honor of Carl F.H. Henry, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1993.
Stiglitz, Joseph, Globalization and its Discontents, New York: WW Norton, 2002
____________ Whither Socialism? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
Tawney, R.H. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism: A Historical Study. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1952.
Tiemstra, John P., "Christianity and Economics: A Review of the Recent Literature," Christian Scholar's Review, Vol. 22, No. 3, 1993, pp.227-247.
Waterman, A.M.C., "Economists on the Relation Between Political Economy and Christian Theology: A Preliminary Survey," International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 14, No 6, 1987.
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958.
Books to Read : Next Practices | Intro
This section pulls together some resources that aim to both inspire a new way of thinking about our workplace organisations as well as some tools and processes that have been used to give real effect to this new way of thinking. It is incomplete in the sense that many other books travel the same journey.The purpose for this list is to inspire new thoughts about (1) how the world of work might be (2) some of the tools and processes that are available to help us give shape to and implement these new realities for the world of work and (3) stories of organisations that have made this journey of transformation.
Books to Read : Next Practices | How The World Might Be
Leadership and the New Science. Discovering order in a chaotic world: Margaret WheatleyBerrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978 157 6753446.
What we think and do frames our reality. This reality shapes what we think is possible and what is impossible. Margaret Wheatley's book is premised on the notion that if we re-think the predominant metaphor that we have for our organisations we can profoundly change their nature.
She argues that the current predominant metaphor for organizations is a machine metaphor which is shaped by an outdated view of our world bequeathed to us by Newtonian physics. She draws on the weird and wonderful world of quantum physics to inspire a new metaphor, that of a living organism. She discusses morphic fields, chaos theory and "strange attractors" - all of which emphasise a world of relationships that help us understand this new metaphor and allow us to conceive of our organisations as fit for human habitation.
Wheatley's home page allows access to her seminars, podcasts, books and articles. www.margaretwheatley.com/index.html
The Living Company: Arie de Geus
Harvard business School Press, 1997. ISBN 0-87584-782-X. 214 pages
Even without the huge effects of the current economic crisis, the average life expectancy of multinational companies is between 40 and 50 years. There are some remarkable exceptions though and De Geus turns his attention to these to identify keys to managing for a long and prosperous organisational life.
De Geus argues that these are (1) its ability to learn and adapt, (2) its ability to build community and a persona for itself (3) its ability to build constructive relationships with other entities, within and outside itself and (4) its ability to govern its own growth and evolution effectively. He looks at and expands on each of these in turn.
Through the book he draws a sharp distinction between living companies,' the purpose of which is to fulfil potential and perpetuate themselves as ongoing communities, and economic companies' which are in business solely to produce wealth for a small number of individuals.
Community. The structure of belonging: Peter Block
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-57675-487-0. 240 pages.
Block believes that "most of our communities are fragmented and at odds with themselves. Businesses, social services, education and health care each live within their own worlds. The same is true of individual citizens who long for connection but end up marginalised, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost."
This book explores how community can emerge from fragmentation. "How does transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? What can leaders and formal leaders do to create a place they want to inhabit?"
His answers to these questions are that "questions are more important than answers in this effort, which means leadership is not a matter of style or vision but about is about getting the right people together in the right way: convening is a more critical skill than commanding.
As he explores the nature of community and the dynamics of transformation, Block outlines six kinds of conversation that will create communal accountability and commitment and describes how we can design physical spaces and structures that will themselves foster a sense of belonging."
Books to Read : Next Practices | Stories Of Organizational Transformation
Maverick! The story behind the world's most unusual workplace: Ricardo SemlerRandom House, 1993. ISBN 0712678867.
Ricardo Semler is the CEO of this most unusual workplace a Brazilian company called Semco. Semco produces industrial machinery and has been the subject of a revolution initiated by Semler some 20 years ago that has seen the organisation thrive and survive through Brazil's turbulent economy in 1990 Brazil's inflation rate was over a 1000%.
Based on a moment of selfrealisation following his own illness trying to drive Semco to diversify from the staid marine pump company his father had started he thought if this was making him ill what was it doing to those who worked with him. And so began his own personal journey, and that of Semco, learning and creating a company in which people could flourish. This book as well as his follow up book, "The seven day weekend", describes this journey.
Semco is living proof that people don't have to be managed with the 'stick and carrot' approach of incentives and controls. Instead Semco gives expression to the belief that people are naturally capable of self-direction and self-control if they are allowed to build genuine commitment to the organisation's goals and are treated as adults, able to learn from their actions and mistakes.
Semco's employees set their own work hours and pay levels, Subordinates hire and review their supervisors. There are no organisation charts or grand 'annual plans' or even grander corporate value statements. Yes, Semco is unusual unfortunately.
Magma Copper Case Study: Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
www.fmcs.gov/internet/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=178&itemID=16795
This is a phenomenal story. The real action starts in 1989. The US mining industry, and copper mining in particular, is in crisis. Magma Copper has been flicked off by its parent company as other open caste copper mines close. And the company and its various unions are in the early stages of a declaration of civil war. The company has hired a private security firm to protect contractors setting up a trailer park to house workers that they are going to bus in to bust the strike everyone is certain will be called. The security firm are roaring around the place in large SUV's armed to the teeth and wearing dark sunglasses. The CEO's house is fired at with live ammunition and the security firm's observation post gets blown sky high it being a mine there was no shortage of dynamite on hand. These events have everyone pointing fingers at each other as the culprits, serving only to fuel the tensions between them.
And yet a strike is avoided and some 5 or so years later productivity has almost doubled and more than 13 cents per pound of copper has been knocked off its production costs.
So how did this remarkable change for this down and almost out company on the brink of civil war with its employees come about. Simply put it's because they attended to their relationships and attended to them with a particular quality. The CEO and HR Director, together with the unions, and one union leader in particular, made the effort to start building constructive workplace relations. Sounds simple and on one level it is but on another level it was very difficult. It required tremendous personal courage from the various leaders not least of all the CEO (who took the bold initial step of apologising publicly to union leaders for the company's past industrial relations practice). But it also required a deep sense of commitment to a strategy that, like all high leverage solutions, was not highly obvious, was resource and time intensive at the outset with little promise of a return on this investment.
Its worth noting that the price of copper is largely determined by the NY Commodity Exchange, and so as price takers, copper companies affect their profit by either reducing operating costs or expanding sales. Well the latter wasn't an option because developing countries like Chile, with its cheaper labour costs and ore bearing rock 5 times the US ore quality, were coming on stream. And remember this was the 80's so the restructuring rightsizing approach to managing cost reduction was getting into full swing. But this approach to reducing operating costs would have only served to wind things up rather than deescalate the conflict. And in any event the company increased its workforce by 12.5% so that wasn't what it did.
Read the case study and discover what they did to make this incredible organisation and break it all in a six year period.
Books to Read : Next Practices | Tools and Processes Available To Shape New Work Realities
The 5th Discipline. The art and practice of the learning organisation (second edition): Peter SengeRandom House, 2006. ISBN 9781905211203. 445 pages
Senge identifies what he calls the 5 disciplines for developing the 3 core learning capabilities of a learning organisation. These capabilities are fostering aspiration, developing reflective conversation and understanding complexity.
A learning organisation is one where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to learn together.
Senge provides a framework to give effect to the oft quoted organisational dictum that people are the only source long term competitive advantage.
The 5th Discipline Fieldbook. Strategies and tools for building a learning organisation: Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, Bryan J. Smith
Nicholas Brealey Publishing , 2006. ISBN 1 85788 0609. 593 pages
This book is aimed at helping organizations translate the theory of the 5th Discipline into reality. It is full of stories and practical ideas for building learning organizations.
The Handbook on Large Group Facilitation Methods. Creating systemic change in organizations and communities: Barbara Bunker and Billie Alban.
Jossey Bass, 2006. ISBN 0787981435. 449 pages
If our organizations are more properly thought of as living systems than machines, and if leading systems is more about engaging commitment rather than commanding compliance what are the new practices that allow us to engage the whole system rather than the few who command the many?
Bunker and Alban provide an overview of these new technologies grouping them under headings related to their purpose such as methods for creating the future, methods for work design, methods for wholesystem participative work and methods for discussion and decision making and detail real case studies that demonstrate their application.
Future Search. An action guide to finding common ground in organizations and communities (second edition): Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff
BerrettKoehler, 2000. ISBN 978576750810. 265 pages
Future Search is one the large group processes that Bunker and Alban describe in their book. Future Search is a process that enables diverse groups of people across a system typically up to 60 70 people with a stake in the organisation or community to plan their future. It is premised on the notion of getting the "whole system" in the room to work on a task focused agenda.
Future Search is a structured planning meeting over two half days either side of a full day that focusses on finding common ground rather than resolving conflicts to generate broad commitment to a common goal. The process allows the participants to identify creative strategies and take responsibility for giving effect to the actions that make up these strategies.
The two half days and a day of a Future Search follow a pattern of reviewing the past, creating a mind map of the present, owning up to the present the "prouds and sorries", imagining and enacting ideal futures and then a dialogue about and agreeing real choices for a common future.
Future Search has been used in a variety of community and organisational settings as diverse as furniture company Ikea and a non governmental group working with children in Darfur. For more information go to www.futuresearch.net. To read a brief example of of the process at work go to www.futuresearch.net/method/applications/uploads/Business/ikea.pdf
WholeScale Change. Unleashing the magic in organisations: Dannemiller Tyson Associates.
Berrett Koehler Publishers, 2000. ISBN 1576750884. 294 pages.
This is another large scale process but Wholescale change is a process that uses a different lens to that used by Future Search. The organisation itself is a bigger feature of focus than Future Search where the lens is primarily on building common ground among the people in an organisation.
Whole scale change builds it process around two models the converge / diverge model and the Action Learning model to give effect to an intervention logic that builds a common database of "dissatisfaction" with things now, establishes a common "vision" of what the organisation yearns to be and agrees significant, system wide "first steps" towards that future. This intervention logic holds that if any of these three elements is not in place i.e. zero, the drive for change cannot overcome the natural forces of resistance that exist within any individual or organisation. The intervention process is focussed around 6 questions that allow the organisation to think through systemwide change. These questions are "do we have the right pattern of success?" , "do we have the right strategic direction?", "do we have the right functions", "do we have the right form?'", "do we have the right resources?" "do we have the right shared information?"
"Whole sale change is applied systems theory".
Theory U. Leading from the future as it emerges the social technology of prescencing: C. Otto Scharmer.
Society for Organisational Learning, 2007. ISBN 0974239054. 560 pages.
Theory U explores the workings of effective processes at both the individual and collective level. Scharmer believes that "what we pay attention to and how we attend both individually and collectively is key to what we create. What often prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is what Scharmer calls our 'blind spot' the inner place from which each of us operates. Learning to become aware of our blind spot is a critical individual and organisational capacity if we are going to effect profound systemic change so needed in business and society today."
Theory U is based on years of research, including hundreds of dialogue interviews with business, community and thought leaders exploring scientific research, institutional change and transformational leadership practice.
Theory U identifies the processes behind opening our mind, our heart and our will. We access these deeper levels by transforming our habitual patterns of thoughts, emotions, and will individually or collectively by going through a process of suspending, redirecting, letting go, letting come, enacting and embodying. We access these different levels by responding to what he calls the enemies that guard the gates to these three levels, the voices of judgement, cynicism and fear respectively. Accessing what he calls a state of presence allows us to connect the intelligence of the head, heart and hands to create the futures we need and long for.
Dialogue and the art of thinking together: William Isaacs.
Doubleday, 1999. ISBN 0385479999. 428 pages.
"As Aristotle put it long ago, human beings are distinguished from other species by our ability to use language. Yet all too often on the job, in businesses, and in our communities or personal lives we don't listen to one another. Invested in our views, we explain when we should inquire. Caught up in our own preconceptions, we disguise our feelings and fears and hide our very meaning. Our talk drives us apart."
In this book, Isaacs diagnoses what he calls our "pathologies of thought" abstraction (we experience parts and not the whole), idolatry (we confuse memory with thinking), certainty (we believe our partial understanding is complete) and violence (we judge and defend incomplete thoughts) and articulates the principles and practices of dialogue that are the 'antidote' to each of these pathologies, namely participation and listening, unfolding and voicing, awareness and suspending and coherence and respecting.
Isaacs demonstrates that "dialogue is more than just an exchange of words, but rather the embrace of different points of view literally, the art of thinking together.
Our ability to improve how we talk and especially how we listen is the foundational skill to all the processes mentioned above.