ABSTRACT
In this chapter we introduce and explain the concepts, ideas, and representations on which we have built our multi-scale, integrated accounting of the energy metabolism of society. Most of these have been briefly touched upon in the preceding chapters. Here we try to be more exhaustive in our explanations and show how they fit our model, using examples to make our case. We particularly focus in sections 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3 on the common features of the endosomatic and exosomatic energy metabolisms; in section 8.4 on the central role of human time allocation and the mosaic effect, which is used to reveal the relations between human time allocation and exosomatic energy flows; in section 8.5 on the alloca-tion of human time and power capacity to the various compartments of human society defined at different levels; in section 8.6 on impredicative loop analysis used to individuate threshold values for the characteristics of key compartments of the socio-economic system that determine the viability of the dynamic energy budget; and finally, in section 8.7 on the simultaneous use of top-down and bottom-up approaches.
