Remaking Scarcity

2011-09-15 Political Science

Author : Costas Panayotakis
Release : 2011-09-15
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 003/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Remaking Scarcity by : Costas Panayotakis

Download or read book Remaking Scarcity written by Costas Panayotakis. This book was released on 2011-09-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dominant schools of neoclassical and neoliberal economics tell us that material scarcity is an inevitable product of an insatiable human nature. Against this, Costas Panayotakis argues that scarcity is in fact a result of the social and economic processes of the capitalist system. The overriding importance of the logic of capital accumulation accounts for the fact that capitalism is not able to make a rational use of scarce resources and the productive potential at the disposal of human society. Instead, capitalism produces grotesque inequalities and unnecessary human suffering, a toxic consumerist culture that fails to satisfy, and a deepening ecological crisis. Remaking Scarcity is a powerful challenge to the current economic orthodoxy. It asserts the core principle of economic democracy, that all human beings should have an equal say over the priorities of the economic system, as the ultimate solution to scarcity and ecological crisis.

The Age of Austerity

2012-01-10 Political Science

Author : Thomas Byrne Edsall
Release : 2012-01-10
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 201/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Age of Austerity by : Thomas Byrne Edsall

Download or read book The Age of Austerity written by Thomas Byrne Edsall. This book was released on 2012-01-10. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of our most prescient political observers provides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years—and how we might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles. In a matter of just three years, a bitter struggle over limited resources has enveloped political discourse at every level in the United States. Fights between haves and have-nots over health care, unemployment benefits, funding for mortgage write-downs, economic stimulus legislation—and, at the local level, over cuts in police protection, garbage collection, and in the number of teachers—have dominated the debate. Elected officials are being forced to make zero-sum choices—or worse, choices with no winners. Resource competition between Democrats and Republicans has left each side determined to protect what it has at the expense of the other. The major issues of the next few years—long-term deficit reduction; entitlement reform, notably of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; major cuts in defense spending; and difficulty in financing a continuation of American international involvement—suggest that your-gain-is-my-loss politics will inevitably intensify.

Remaking Chinese Urban Form

2006-09-27 Architecture

Author : Duanfang Lu
Release : 2006-09-27
Genre : Architecture
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 378/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Remaking Chinese Urban Form by : Duanfang Lu

Download or read book Remaking Chinese Urban Form written by Duanfang Lu. This book was released on 2006-09-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this pioneering study of contemporary Chinese urban form, Duanfang Lu provides an analysis of how Chinese society constructed itself through the making and remaking of its built environment. She shows that as China’s quest for modernity created a perpetual scarcity as both a social reality and a national imagination, the realization of planning ideals was postponed. The work unit – the socialist enterprise or institute – gradually developed from workplace to social institution which integrated work, housing and social services. The Chinese city achieved a unique geography made up in large part of self-contained work units. Remaking Chinese Urban Form provides an important reference for academics and students conducting research on China. It will be a key source for courses on Asia in architecture, urban planning, geography, sociology and anthropology, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The insightful yet accessible introduction to urban China will also be of interest to architects, urban designers and planners – as well as general audience who wish to learn about contemporary Chinese society.

The Age of Austerity

2012-09-04 Political Science

Author : Thomas Byrne Edsall
Release : 2012-09-04
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 452/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Age of Austerity by : Thomas Byrne Edsall

Download or read book The Age of Austerity written by Thomas Byrne Edsall. This book was released on 2012-09-04. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of our most prescient political observers provides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years—and how we might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles. In a matter of just three years, a bitter struggle over limited resources has enveloped political discourse at every level in the United States. Fights between haves and have-nots over health care, unemployment benefits, funding for mortgage write-downs, economic stimulus legislation—and, at the local level, over cuts in police protection, garbage collection, and in the number of teachers—have dominated the debate. Elected officials are being forced to make zero-sum choices—or worse, choices with no winners. Resource competition between Democrats and Republicans has left each side determined to protect what it has at the expense of the other. The major issues of the next few years—long-term deficit reduction; entitlement reform, notably of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; major cuts in defense spending; and difficulty in financing a continuation of American international involvement—suggest that your-gain-is-my-loss politics will inevitably intensify.

The Limits to Scarcity

2013-05-13 Business & Economics

Author : Lyla Mehta
Release : 2013-05-13
Genre : Business & Economics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 941/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Limits to Scarcity by : Lyla Mehta

Download or read book The Limits to Scarcity written by Lyla Mehta. This book was released on 2013-05-13. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scarcity is considered a ubiquitous feature of the human condition. It underpins much of modern economics and is widely used as an explanation for social organisation, social conflict and the resource crunch confronting humanity's survival on the planet. It is made out to be an all-pervasive fact of our lives - be it of housing, food, water or oil. But has the conception of scarcity been politicized, naturalized, and universalized in academic and policy debates? Has overhasty recourse to scarcity evoked a standard set of market, institutional and technological solutions which have blocked out political contestations, overlooking access as a legitimate focus for academic debates as well as policies and interventions? Theoretical and empirical chapters by leading academics and scholar-activists grapple with these issues by questioning scarcity's taken-for-granted nature. They examine scarcity debates across three of the most important resources - food, water and energy - and their implications for theory, institutional arrangements, policy responses and innovation systems. The book looks at how scarcity has emerged as a totalizing discourse in both the North and South. The 'scare' of scarcity has led to scarcity emerging as a political strategy for powerful groups. Aggregate numbers and physical quantities are trusted, while local knowledges and experiences of scarcity that identify problems more accurately and specifically are ignored. Science and technology are expected to provide 'solutions', but such expectations embody a multitude of unexamined assumptions about the nature of the 'problem', about the technologies and about the institutional arrangements put forward as a 'fix.' Through this examination the authors demonstrate that scarcity is not a natural condition: the problem lies in how we see scarcity and the ways in which it is socially generated.

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