Smaller national and regional trading networks have a much smaller range of wealth, so globalisation has made the rich richer simply because of the larger scale of the trading network ... Read more
The really confining limits are not material or technological, but conceptual. The real barriers are the limits imposed by prevailing ideas and values. We are unwitting and unknowing prisoners of our own conceptions ... Read more
There should be a recognition of a global commitment to a right to development with an explicit emphasis on the development of human and social capital as the true repository and generator of human values on a global scale ... Read more
Economic systems do not arise in a vacuum. They are influenced by, and in turn influence, the larger social system in which they are embedded ... Read more
This article is intended to serve as an initial discussion paper for a WAAS e-seminar, an international conference at UNO in Geneva and a workshop at the Library of Alexandria in May-June, 2013 ... Read More
It is important to reconsider the measurements which refer to the "Wealth of Nations" and from which the most appropriate references for better welfare policies are derived. In the present Service Economy, not all the "value added" measures indicate an increase in the level of wealth (the costs to cope with pollution for instance), whereas many developments in service functions and performances (in the case of many communication systems for instance) add to real wealth much more than the usual value added references indicate ... Read More
Our self-organising social networks have structured our societies and economies, and are now reflected in our technology networks. We can now replicate their evolution in computer simulations and can therefore better assess how to deal with the greatest challenges facing us in the next few decades ... Read More
The Trieste Forum in March 2013 marked a significant milestone in the effort of the World Academy to evolve a comprehensive, integrated, trans-disciplinary perspective for addressing global challenges. An initial presentation on the physics of Dark Matter aptly illustrated the need for new thinking in the social sciences ... Read More
One of the most far-reaching decisions of the United Nations General Assembly was the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. The Declaration was adopted with an expectation of optimism about progression to a new global economic dispensation. This did not happen ... Read More
Old economic approaches are not capable of meeting our economic, environmental, and social challenges. To effectively meet these challenges, we need a perspective that goes beyond the conventional capitalism vs. socialism debate ...
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