ABSTRACT
The global rise of civic society and the World Social Forum, for example, are significant expressions of this global phenomenon. One of the reasons for this emergence can be seen in a fundamentally changed and increasingly complex social and economic context which humankind is facing, captured, for example, in terms like Network Society and Information Economy. This chapter shows how this new context brings not only economic opportunities, but also massive problems through social inequality and injustice. This is another interpretation of the social, humankind is called to bridge the gap between technological overdevelopment and social underdevelopment. The chapter addresses this issue with the expertise of the Club of Rome, as well as with Eric Beinhocker's approach to social technologies. Altogether it becomes evident, that a reconnection to the philosophical grounds of a social economy is necessary in order to meet current-day social challenges.
