A
range of new theorists have also increasingly given intellectual muscle
to the movement. Some, like Richard Heinberg, stress the radical
implications of ending economic growth. Former presidential adviser
James Gustav Speth calls for restructuring the entire system as the only
way to deal with ecological problems in general and growth in
particular. David Korten has offered an agenda for a new economy which
stresses small Main Street business and building from the bottom up.
(Korten also co-chairs a “New Economy Working Group” with John Cavanagh
at the Institute of Policy Studies.) Juliet Schor has proposed a vision
of “Plentitude” oriented in significant part around medium-scale, high
tech industry. My own work on a Pluralist Commonwealth emphasizes a
community-building system characterized by a mix of democratized forms
of ownership ranging from small co-ops all the way up to
public/worker-owned firms where large scale cannot be avoided.
The movement obviously confronts the
enormous entrenched power of an American political economic system
dominated by very large banking and corporate interests.
Writers
like Herman Daly and David Bollier have also helped establish
theoretical foundations for fundamental challenges to endless economic
growth, on the one hand, and the need to transcend privatized economics
in favor of a “commons” understanding, on the other. The awarding in
2009 of the Nobel Prize to Elinor Ostrom for work on commons-based
development underlined recognition at still another level of some of the
critical themes of the movement.
Irene V. on 04 Oct 12"Is Your Brand Ready for Unleashed Workers? by Marc Stoiber | keywords: articles, Computers/Electronics/Technology, Business Model Innovation, Employee Engagement, Environmental/Social Issues, Impact Reduction, Org Culture and Processes, Transportation/Logistics Tweet Video conferencing, courtesy of GoToMeeting. | Image credit: Citrix October 1, 2012- A key element of futureproof brands is the ability to predict the needs of rapidly evolving consumers. This is easier said than done. In hindsight, Facebook makes sense. But few could've predicted the rise of a generation willing to share every intimate detail online. Telecommuting is a similarly cagey concept. For years, we've been trumpeting it as progress toward less pollution and time waste, and greater sustainability. But there's still little indication what this new world of stay-away workers will actually look like, what working anywhere actually means, and how brands will have to adapt to serve this new group. My interest in this area was sparked by a conversation with Kim DeCarlis, VP of Corporate Marketing at Citrix (the folks pushing the virtualization envelope with offerings such as GoTo Meeting). Although DeCarlis agrees it's early days, she believes there are indicators of what brands serving future telecommuters should think about. Hyper Personal Standardization in electronics is still de rigueur in most offices. As DeCarlis says, "Permutation and new gear is anathema to IT departments. Trying to make an office work - and people share information - when everyone has their own platform is an exercise in futility." Virtualization and the Cloud have changed the need for standardization. "I have a computer, tablet and phone that I bought for myself," says DeCarlis. "With virtualized functions like data, applications and desktops delivered via the cloud, my personal gear is 100% usable at work." So what does this mean for the unleashed workers of tomorrow