The Locust and the Bee (ebook)

Argumento de The Locust and the Bee (ebook)

"[I]nteresting and thought-provoking."--Frank Dillon, Irish Times

"Geoff Mulgan's extraordinary book strikes a balance between innovative thought and grounded pragmatism and serves as an urgent invitation to discourse--discourse about how we can harness the most inclusive aspects of capitalism and explore new approaches for our shared work of building the common good. Mulgan challenges us to find the best in ourselves and in the systems that provide the hope for human flourishing."--John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University

"Geoff Mulgan is a brilliant thinker--lucid, deep, and with a set of clear and progressive values. In this book he brings all his qualities to bear on the question of how we make capitalism productive, responsible, and fair. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand how to create a more equal and just world."--Ed Miliband, MP, leader of the UK Labour Party

"Geoff Mulgan has given us an important book: imaginative, erudite, wise. It answers the question of how capitalism can transform itself to create the kind of value that will be needed and prized by twenty-first-century citizens, a question that is at the root of so many current economic, social, and spiritual ills. Mulgan's vision of a capitalism that maintains and deepens human relationships is enormously attractive and eminently attainable."--Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University

"Can we replace the predatory part of capitalism with something creative and morally uplifting? This book shows us that we can. With daring historical insights, Mulgan shows convincingly that societies can choose their own destiny."--Richard Layard, London School of Economics

"Geoff Mulgan has a disciplined mind and an adventurer's soul, and the result is a clear-eyed tale that brings creativity and courage to our most essential problems. Mulgan has a way of penetrating to the core of a question and then delivering an answer that makes a tremendous amount of sense. As a result, The Locust and the Bee is an inspiring handbook for CEOs and citizens alike. I'm delighted to have it at hand."--Joshua Cooper Ramo, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and author of The Age of the Unthinkable

"Geoff Mulgan is one of the best theorists and practitioners of social innovation in the world today. In The Locust and the Bee he offers a penetrating account of contemporary market economies from the perspective of the contrast between those who create and those who pillage. He explores ideas, institutions, and practices that can ensure the triumph of the creators over the pillagers. Here is a handbook for practical visionaries, written by one of them."--Roberto Mangabeira Unger

"Geoff Mulgan weighs the creative and destructive powers of capitalism, arguing that these contrary forces can never be resolved; the genius of the system is that it is an endless work-in-progress. Many readers will disagree--I do--but he is unfailingly sensible and often provocative; this adult defense of capitalism deserves to be widely discussed."--Richard Sennett, London School of Economics

"Geoff Mulgan . . . earns his spurs as a top-rank, global public intellectual with his latest book, The Locust and the Bee."--Hazel Henderson, Seeking Alpha

"There is much in Mulgan's analysis that will repay careful scrutiny. . . . The Locust and the Bee abounds with arresting observations of this kind and no one will finish the book without having learned something new and important."--John Gray, New Statesman

"A brilliant book, full of great ideas, provoking us to pause and think."--M. S. Sriram, Business Standard (India)

"Geoff Mulgan's The Locust and the Bee is an important contribution to this field."--John Lloyd, Financial Times

"What Mulgan is trying to do is laudable. . . . No-one can doubt the sincerity of his message, the intellectual rigour he applies, or the beauty of the English he writes."-- Rebecca Harding, Business Economist

Geoff Mulgan is the author of Good and Bad Power (Penguin) and The Art of Public Strategy, among other books. A globally recognized pioneer in the field of social innovation, he was the founder of the think tank Demos and served as director of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and director of policy under Tony Blair. He is currently chief executive of the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

"[E]xcellent."--Frank Pasquale, Concurring Opinions

"[A] rare combination of breadth and detail . . . an essential guide to how to deal with the ‘predators and creators in capitalism’s future.’"--Julian Baggini, Observer, "Best Books of the Year"0Chapter 1- After Capitalism 1
Chapter 2 - Barren and Pregnant Crises 17
Chapter 3 - The Essence of Capitalism 28

Chapter 4 - To Take or to Make 52

• The Roles of Creators and Predators

Chapter 5 - Capitalism's Critics 79
Chapter 6 - Anticapitalist Utopias and Neotopias 104

Chapter 7 - The Nature of Change 116

• How One System Becomes Another

Chapter 8- Creative and Predatory Technology 145
Chapter 9 - The Rise of Economies Based on Relationships and Maintenance 172
Chapter 10 - Capitalism's Generative Ideas 198

Chapter 11 - New Accommodations 230

• or How Societies (Occasionally) Jump

Chapter 12 - Outgrowing Capitalism 280

Afterword to the paperback edition 289
Notes 297
Acknowledgments 329
Index 331