The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value After the Crisis

ISBN-13: 9780231152648 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 208 str.

Adam Arvidsson

Opis

A more ethical economic system is now possible, one that rectifies the crisis spots of our current downturn while balancing the injustices of extreme poverty and wealth. Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, a scholar and an entrepreneur, outline the shape such an economy might take, identifying its origins in innovations already existent in our production, valuation, and distribution systems.

Much like nineteenth-century entrepreneurs, philosophers, bankers, artisans, and social organizers who planned a course for modern capitalism that was more economically efficient and ethically desirable, we now have a chance to construct new instruments, institutions, and infrastructure to reverse the trajectory of a quickly deteriorating economic environment. Considering a multitude of emerging phenomena, Arvidsson and Peitersen show wealth creation can be the result of a new kind of social production, and the motivation of continuous capital accumulation can exist in tandem with a new desire to maximize our social impact.

Arvidsson and Peitersen argue that financial markets could become a central arena in which diverse ethical concerns are integrated into tangible economic valuations. They suggest that such a common standard has already emerged and that this process is linked to the spread of social media, making it possible to capture the sentiment of value to most people. They ultimately recommend how to build upon these developments to initiate a radical democratization of economic systems and the value decisions they generate.

O autorze

Adam Arvidsson teaches sociology at the University of Milano, Italy, and lectures on creative industries at the Copenhagen Business School. He has written on brands, the information economy, and cities and creativity. His most recent book is Brands: Meaning and Value in Media Culture. He is based in Milan. Nicolai Peitersen has founded and cofounded a number of companies and organizations, including a cross-disciplinary think tank and, most recently, a new international platform for socioeconomic development, the Hanwang Forum in China. He has written on creativity, ethics, and the economy, both at the think-tank and during his earlier career at the Central Bank of Denmark and the investment bank JP Morgan in London. He is based in Beijing.