Capitalism XXL

Capitalism XXL

Author: Geert Noels

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2023-05-15

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0228018552

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Our world is suffering from economic gigantism. Under the current capitalist system huge companies and organizations are becoming even larger and more powerful, creating a Champions League effect that kills healthy competition, doesn’t consider sustainable growth, and leaves workers feeling pressured and susceptible to burnout. Capitalism XXL makes it clear that current rules of capitalism favour bigness in an unfair way, and that a general unease with the capitalist system is growing. The trend for bigness goes beyond businesses: schools, hospitals, libraries, and all kinds of organizations, misled by economies of scale, have consolidated. A larger entity can seem attractive for its short-term financial gains, but the results produce enormous social costs. Rather than dismantling the capitalist system in favour of neo-Marxism, Geert Noels argues, we have to instead go back to the roots of capitalism and embrace its traditional principles as written by Adam Smith in the eighteenth century. Capitalism XXL makes the case for changing the rules in order to tame the giants and restore the individual to the world economy. Guided by history, Noels proposes an approach to capitalism that considers all human dimensions – social, ecological, and economic – and describes a sustainable future economy that will not burden the generations to come with debt, social inequality, and a natural environment that is damaged beyond repair.


The Nature and Logic of Capitalism

The Nature and Logic of Capitalism

Author: Robert L. Heilbroner

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 039395529X

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A social analysis of capitalism. Nature and logic of social systems and capitalism.


Food for Thought

Food for Thought

Author: Julia Bernstein

Publisher: Campus Verlag

Published: 2010-10-04

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 3593392526

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In recent decades, many Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union have settled in Germany and Israel. In Food for Thought, Julia Bernstein conducts a widely interdisciplinary investigation into the ways in which such immigrants manage their multiple, overlapping identities--as Jews, Russians, and citizens of their newly adopted nations. Focusing in particular on the packaging, sale, and consumption of food, which offers surprising insights into the self-definitions of these immigrants, the book delivers one of our most detailed looks yet at complicated and important aspects of immigration and national identities.


The Caribbean

The Caribbean

Author: Denis Benn

Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9766371121

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"The study is concerned mainly with the growth and development of political ideas in the Caribbean since the latter half of the eighteenth century. It attempts an analysis of the more significant intellectual formulations which have emerged in the region during the period ... it includes reference to some of the major economic theories which have shaped the Caribbean reality over the years."--Introduction ([p. xi]).


Queer Premises

Queer Premises

Author: Ben Campkin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 1350324841

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Queer premises provide vital social and cultural infrastructure – a queer infrastructure – connecting different generations and locations, facilitating the movement of resources, across and beyond the city. Queer Premises offers evidence for how London's diverse LGBTQ+ populations have embedded themselves into urban space, systems and resources. It sets out to understand how, across their different material dimensions, bars, cafés, nightclubs, pubs, community centres, and hybrids of these typologies, have been imagined, created and sustained. From the 1980s to the present, Campkin asks how, where, and why these venues have been established, how they operate and the purposes they serve, what challenges they face and why they close down.


Democracy at Work

Democracy at Work

Author: Richard Wolff

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1608462579

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What, and who, are we working for? A thoughtful assessment on our current society from “probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist” (The New York Times). Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve. One key cause for this intolerable state of affairs is the lack of genuine democracy in our economy as well as in our politics. The solution requires the institution of genuine economic democracy, starting with workers managing their own workplaces, as the basis for a genuine political democracy. Here Richard D. Wolff lays out a hopeful and concrete vision of how to make that possible, addressing the many people who have concluded economic inequality and politics as usual can no longer be tolerated and are looking for a concrete program of action. “Wolff’s constructive and innovative ideas suggest new and promising foundations for much more authentic democracy and sustainable and equitable development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A very valuable contribution in troubled times.” —Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual and author of Hope and Prospects


The Limits of the Green Economy

The Limits of the Green Economy

Author: Anneleen Kenis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-24

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1317670205

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Projecting win-win situations, new economic opportunities, green growth and innovative partnerships, the green economy discourse has quickly gained centre stage in international environmental governance and policymaking. Its underlying message is attractive and optimistic: if the market can become the tool for tackling climate change and other major ecological crises, the fight against these crises can also be the royal road to solving the problems of the market. But how ‘green’ is the green economy? And how social or democratic can it be? This book examines how the emergence of this new discourse has fundamentally modified the terms of the environmental debate. Interpreting the rise of green economy discourse as an attempt to re-invent capitalism, it unravels the different dimensions of the green economy and its limits: from pricing carbon to emissions trading, from sustainable consumption to technological innovation. The book uses the innovative concept of post-politics to provide a critical perspective on the way green economy discourse represents nature and society (and their interaction) and forecloses the imagination of alternative socio-ecological possibilities. As a way of repoliticising the debate, the book advocates the construction of new political faultlines based on the demands for climate justice and democratic commons. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental politics, political ecology, human geography, human ecology, political theory, philosophy and political economy. Includes a foreword written by Erik Swyngedouw (Professor of Geography, Manchester University).


Humanizing the Economy

Humanizing the Economy

Author: John Restakis

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2010-11-02

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 086571651X

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How the largest social movement in history is making the world a better place.


Reflections on Socialism in the Twenty-First Century

Reflections on Socialism in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Claes Brundenius

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-02-27

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 3030339203

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In this volume, the authors reflect on the question “what is socialism” as it pertains to today’s economy. There is particular emphasis on democratic socialism models as a potential alternative to classic authoritarian socialism. A number of topical questions are addressed such as: What is democratic socialism and is it feasible, or even viable? What can be learnt from existing democratic socialist experiences? What would an ideal democratic socialist society look like today? Under what circumstances, and where, could such a model emerge today? In exploring these questions, several themes arise within these chapters such as the role of socialist values and inspirations in capitalist societies; and how capitalism and socialism relate to the knowledge economy. The contemporary world is showing many contradictions with uncertain future scenarios that preoccupy mankind. The global capitalist system as we know it is in deep crisis—and some even predict its slow death, because of its inability to handle the environmental imperative. At the same time, classic socialism as experienced in the Soviet Union and its proxies is a stone dead alternative to capitalism today. So what options remain? The book considers this question as it examines a range of countries where socialism (in one form or another) has arisen, or where democratic socialism could be possible, including Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Sweden and the United States.