ABSTRACT

The recognition is growing: truly addressing the problems of the 21st century requires going beyond small tweaks and modest reforms to business as usual—it requires "changing the system." But what does this mean? And what would it entail? The New Systems Reader highlights some of the most thoughtful, substantive, and promising answers to these questions, drawing on the work and ideas of some of the world’s key thinkers and activists on systemic change. Amid the failure of traditional politics and policies to address our fundamental challenges, an increasing number of thoughtful proposals and real-world models suggest new possibilities, this book convenes an essential conversation about the future we want.

part I|36 pages

Social Democracy and Radical Localism

chapter Chapter 1|9 pages

Social Democratic Capitalism

The Nordic Experience and Beyond

chapter Chapter 2|8 pages

The Good Society 2.0

chapter Chapter 3|17 pages

The Promise of a Million Utopias

part 2|88 pages

New System Values

chapter Chapter 4|19 pages

The Economy for the Common Good

A Workable, Transformative, Ethics-Based Alternative

chapter Chapter 5|12 pages

A Civic Economy of Provisions

chapter Chapter 6|18 pages

Whole Systems Change

A Framework and First Steps for Social/Economic Transformation

chapter Chapter 7|17 pages

A Living Economy for a Living Earth

chapter Chapter 8|20 pages

Earthland

Scenes from a Civilized Future

part 3|68 pages

A Planetary Economy

chapter Chapter 10|12 pages

Well-Being Economy

A Scenario for a Post-Growth Horizontal Governance System

chapter Chapter 11|16 pages

Toward Democratic Eco-socialism as the Next World System

A Vision for the Future

chapter Chapter 12|20 pages

Six Theses on Saving the Planet

part 4|30 pages

Ownership and Economic Democracy

chapter Chapter 13|7 pages

Economic Democracy

Ethical, Economically Viable Socialism

chapter Chapter 14|3 pages

The Next System

Workers Direct Themselves

chapter Chapter 15|18 pages

Diversifying Public Ownership

Constructing Institutions for Participation, Social Empowerment, and Democratic Control

part 5|122 pages

Community-Based Pluralist Systems

chapter Chapter 17|20 pages

The Joyful Economy

A Next System Possibility

chapter Chapter 19|18 pages

Solidarity Economy

Building an Economy for People and Planet

chapter Chapter 20|16 pages

Democratizing Wealth in the US South and Beyond

part 6|61 pages

Commoning, Cooperation, and Participatory Planning

chapter Chapter 22|14 pages

Commoning as a Transformative Social Paradigm

chapter Chapter 23|23 pages

Cooperative Commonwealth and the Partner State

chapter Chapter 24|6 pages

An Introduction to Participatory Economics

chapter Chapter 25|15 pages

Participatory Economics and the Next System

part 7|53 pages

The Emerging New Economy

chapter Chapter 26|23 pages

Cultivating Community Economies

Tools for Building a Livable World

chapter Chapter 29|11 pages

The Arusha Declaration

The Case for Democratic Socialism 50 Years On