Growth is a dominant economic driver accounting for the wealth of nations and organizations alike. However, in the face of environmental pressures, widespread social and economic imbalance, and the reigning climate of uncertainty we are experiencing today, there is now a need for a viable interpretation of what growth really means. In this book, the author redefines the limits to economic growth and tackles the issues involved in three parts, in order to study a variety of international issues, including the world economic system, climate change and environmental degradation.
Table of Contents:
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xvii
Part 1 A Present-Day Imperative 1
Chapter 1 A Present-Day Imperative To Think or Not To Think… 3
1.1 Where are we by now? 3
1.2 Situating this book 8
1.3 From local to global to complex 11
1.4 In search for growth 14
1.5 On futures and their values 15
Chapter 2 Situating Growth in Time–Space 17
2.1 Two six thousand day lapses 17
2.2 Complexity to the fore 19
2.3 The message is not the content 21
2.4 On the approach taken by this book 25
Chapter 3 Dominant Thinkings of the Past Century 27
3.1 Economic dynamics evolved 27
3.2 Change and no change: the art of governance 28
3.3 What’s in a “dominant design”? 29
3.4 Why are dominant designs important to consider? 32
3.5 Operating dominant designs on an example 33
3.6 Categorizing four general fixations found in the economic world 34
3.7 On the remarkable fixation on competition 39
3.8 Implementing the defixation process 41
Chapter 4 The Historical Contribution of System Dynamics 43
4.1 The pioneering work at MIT 43
4.2 The historical quest for cracking the “world problématique” 45
4.3 The historical outlet with the Club of Rome 47
4.4 On complex systems and the legacy relevance of system dynamics 47
4.5 On the psychology of “not wanting to know” 48
4.6 Some prevalent differences and similarities with the seventies 50
4.7 Getting away from system dynamics from now? 52
4.8 The position taken in this book 54
Part 2 A Methodology for Tackling Growth Problematics 57
Chapter 5 In Search for New Approaches Fit-For-Purpose 59
5.1 A GDP comfort zone 59
5.2 In search for growth 62
5.3 How to correctly model the situation problematics 66
5.4 Leaving duality 67
5.5 The ever-growing complexity 70
5.6 Searching for a representation framework beyond set theory 73
5.7 Shifting from problem-based to design-based methods 79
Chapter 6 Angling the Core Subject Appropriately 81
6.1 Principle 1: find the “lowest lever point” 81
6.2 Principle 2: divide to multiply 83
6.2.1 An example 84
6.2.2 The overall scheme 84
6.3 Principle 3: going from the “two” to the “three” 85
6.4 Practical considerations 89
6.5 Case: reflections from a Haitian context 91
6.6 An asset base for growth 93
6.7 The exponential movement 94
6.8 The economic equation 96
6.9 Relationship with SDGs 96
Chapter 7 Cracking Open a Growth Concept 101
7.1 On the presence of dominant designs 101
7.2 Some background knowledge relevant to GDP 104
7.3 Discussing GDP features 107
7.4 Evidencing past GDP’s dominant designs and breaking axes 107
7.5 A framed template for “new growth” 108
7.6 Charting GDP’s dominant designs and breaking axes 112
7.7 Blueprinting new growth concepts 117
7.8 Expanding on growth-related concepts 119
Chapter 8 Opening Up New Growth Axes 123
8.1 Energy is everything; efficiency best manages it 123
8.2 Option one: “electrifying GDP” 125
8.3 Option two: “efficiency GDP” 126
8.4 A side note 127
8.5 On distribution and its criteria 128
Part 3 Going Beyond the Notion of GDP 131
Chapter 9 New Growth Operational Formulations with Examples 133
9.1 A quick return to system dynamics 133
9.2 How to balance the disequilibria by injecting a conduct way 135
9.3 Why isn’t a circular economy enough? 138
Chapter 10 Discussing Work, Labor and Money 141
10.1 Is work still on demand? 141
10.2 Cultural factors underpinning work 142
10.3 Work: background knowledge 144
10.4 Fixations on work 144
10.5 Work: dominant designs and breaking axes 146
10.6 Blueprint concepts for extending the notion of work 148
10.7 Expanding the notion of work towards a cooperation principle 149
10.8 The fixations on money 150
Chapter 11 Case Study: Growth Through Cooperation, Work, Time and Space 153
11.1 Evolving work in co-working settings 153
11.2 Why co-working as a subject matter? 154
11.3 Generations of co-working spaces don’t act on the same premises 155
11.4 Departing from some current views opens up future co-working spaces 158
11.5 Using C-K theory for thinking future co-working spaces 158
11.6 Giving thought to today’s 1.0 co-working spaces 159
11.6.1 What’s critically missing in current CWS interpretations? 161
11.6.2 Limits to the concept: is this a co-working space? 161
11.6.3 Extending and reformulating the state-of-the-art for more conceptual expansions 163
11.6.4 Structuring the K space for opening up ensuing C expansions 164
11.6.5 Summarizing this thinking 165
11.7 Mechanisms for expanding the original concept 166
11.8 What may be a language for “working together?” 167
11.9 Founding experiments – the protocol and schedule 168
11.9.1 Evolving the results obtained: socio-economic implications 171
11.10 Concluding with some considerations for the future 172
11.11 Acknowledgments 173
11.12 Further reading 173
Chapter 12 A Society’s New Clothes 177
12.1 The main messages from this book 177
12.2 Enhancing dynamics 179
12.3 Consciousness as the molding factor? 180
Part 4 Appendices 185
Appendix 1 A Short Primer on C-K Theory 187
Appendix 2 Some Chronological Reports to The Club of Rome Commented 199
Bibliography 201
Index 211
About the Author :
Patrick CORSI , Dr. Ing. is an international consultant specialized in breakthrough design innovation processes. After an engineering and managerial career in industry with IBM Corp., IBM France, SYSECA/THOMSON-CSF and a successful start-up in artificial intelligence in Paris, he acted as a Project Officer within the European Commission in Brussels, specializing in R&D projects in advanced AI technologies. He is an ex-Associate Professor, a serial business books and eBooks author and a professional speaker, and an Associate Practitioner with Mines ParisTech in a large number of application domains.
