The global financial crisis has renewed concern about whether capitalist markets are the best way of organizing economic life. Would it not be better if we were to treat the economy as something made and remade by people themselves, rather than as an impersonal machine?
The object of a human economy is the reproduction of human beings and of whatever sustains life in general. Such an economy would express human variety in its local particulars as well as the interests of all humanity.
The editors have assembled here a citizen’s guide to building a human economy. This project is not a dream but is part of a collective effort that began a decade ago at the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and has gathered pace ever since.
Over thirty original essays address topics that range from globalization, community participation and microcredit to corporate social responsibility and alternative energy. Each offers a critical guide to further reading.
The Human Economy builds on decades of engaged research to bring a new economic vision to general readers and a comprehensive guide for all students of the contemporary world.
About the Author
Keith Hart is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Jean-Louis Laville is Professor of Sociology at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers.
Antonio David Cattani is Professor of Sociology at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Features
A citizen's guide on how to create a new and more humane world economy, written for a wide general readership.
The book lays out a radical alternative to the existing ways of organizing the global economy, putting the wellbeing of people and communities, rather than the profits of banks and corporations, at the centre.
The volume includes over thirty original essays which address topics such as globalization, microcredit and corporate social responsibility.
This book offers a creative and practical vision of an alternative way of organizing our social and economic life, inspired by the ideas of the World Social Forum at Porte Alegre, in which the editors and many of the authors have been active participants.
