The locust and the bee : predators and creators in capitalism's future / Geoff Mulgan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mulgan, Geoff.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Capitalism--History.

Capitalism.

Economic history.

Economics--Philosophy.

Economics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 p.)

Edition:

Updated edition with a New afterword by the author

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The recent economic crisis was a dramatic reminder that capitalism can both produce and destroy. It's a system that by its very nature encourages predators and creators, locusts and bees. But, as Geoff Mulgan argues in this compelling, imaginative, and important book, the economic crisis also presents a historic opportunity to choose a radically different future for capitalism, one that maximizes its creative power and minimizes its destructive force. In an engaging and wide-ranging argument, Mulgan digs into the history of capitalism across the world to show its animating ideas, its utopias and dystopias, as well as its contradictions and possibilities. Drawing on a subtle framework for understanding systemic change, he shows how new political settlements reshaped capitalism in the past and are likely to do so in the future. By reconnecting value to real-life ideas of growth, he argues, efficiency and entrepreneurship can be harnessed to promote better lives and relationships rather than just a growth in the quantity of material consumption. Healthcare, education, and green industries are already becoming dominant sectors in the wealthier economies, and the fields of social innovation, enterprise, and investment are rapidly moving into the mainstream--all indicators of how capital could be made more of a servant and less a master. This is a book for anyone who wonders where capitalism might be heading next--and who wants to help make sure that its future avoids the mistakes of the past. This edition of The Locust and the Bee includes a new afterword in which the author lays out some of the key challenges facing capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

After capitalism

Barren and pregnant crises

The essence of capitalism

To take or to make

The roles of predators and creators

Capitalism's critics

Anticapitalist utopias and neotopias

The nature of change

How one system becomes another

Creative and predatory technology

The rise of economies based on relationships and maintenance

Capitalism's generative ideas

New accommodations, or how societies (occasionally) jump

Outgrowing capitalism.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4008-6619-7

1-299-05132-4

1-4008-4665-X

OCLC:

827944867