Sustainable Development, Social Wellbeing and a politics of moral, spiritual and civic renewal – who we are, what we value and what kind of world we want to live in.
As we bump along the road of increased economic, social and environmental uncertainty, the consequences of our obsession with growth economically and ecologically have become clear: a financial system completely disconnected from the real-world economy, unsustainable levels of debt and the unbearable strain placed on ecosystems by our high consuming, three-planet lifestyles.
Clearly our monetary crisis represents much more than just a deep and temporary recession. The myth of free-market growth has indeed failed us, and our whole economic model of extracting maximum value from finite natural resources has proved, inevitably, to be completely unsustainable. In the last 25 years, the global economy has doubled,while natural resource consumption has degraded an estimated 60% of the world’s ecosystems, leaving massive gaps between the world’s rich and poor.
But will the Banks and Corporations just mop their brows and settle back into their old ways? People in the City coffee bars this morning scanning their copies of City A.M. are again talking about bonuses and how they are going to spend them – do these people have any morals or principles? And while we are talking authenticity, what about our battered politicians?
We clearly need to develop a new business model, a moral and spiritual project, not just a market-driven one. Organisations like The New Economics Foundation for example are breaking new ground with some of their projects and models like the useful Happy Planet Index, while many of the traditional environment NGO’s still appear to be lost in the wilderness and often out of touch when it comes to economics. We will be discussing this during the morning, and taking a hard look at the balance between regulation and innovation, and the moral limits of markets.
Brief synopsis of lecture given at Westminster University on 7.07.09. by Graham Game.
Dear Grahame
Your blog is so on message .
I implore you to look into the growing world of social business & enterprise. These businesses (speaking for the sector as ClearlySo.com) are a burgeoning group of companies and ‘social entrepreneurs’ that are already marrying profit and social (and environmental) goals.
These businesses are i believe a key element in tackling the mire the world finds itself in, through the development of a social economy. They are innovative, driven by a desire to address social and environmental problems, commercially sustainable and growing in number.
Simon Evill