Archives: System breakdown

What's next for banking?

I have enjoyed Mosaic Ventures blog on the unbundling of the banks. Their observation that it is not a new bank that we need but a new way of banking. There is in my view an inevitability to the arrival of a new ecosystem, as our world evolves that will serve us even better. But to do so we have to have fundamental redesign of what a businesses looks like. Mostly its design is distributed, networked and peer to peer. Continue reading

July 17, 2015

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Dickson Despommier innovating the vertical farm

This is how Dickson sees our future panning out. By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? Continue reading

November 12, 2014

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How do you rule the void once the party's over?

Earlier this year I read the late Peter Mair’s Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. It got me thinking, because as I observed in Chapter 5 of No Straight Lines, we are in a process of political transformation. A transformation of how we organise and run our societies. I ask the question, what should government look like in a non-linear world? Are we creating and running systems in the right way? Why is it that so many people are disengaged with the process of democracy and civil organisations? Continue reading

November 1, 2014

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Joel Salatin on the potential of large scale organic farming

Joel Salatin is America’s most celebrated pioneer of chemical-free farming. Here Joel gives a powerful talk on why our current industrial way of farming is so wrong in so many ways. Demonstrating the potential of how we can do it differently – better and more in step with the way of the natural world. Salatin says we can feed the world but not by industrial methods. Continue reading

June 22, 2014

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The French Intifada and the crisis of modern identity

In No Straight Lines I explore the what is called the crisis of of the modern world. The crisis of identity. Who are we? Why do we exist? What makes meaning, identity, community and connection? This crisis impacts our communities our organisations (think The Office), our wider society and even nations. What have we become? I present a challenge I+We=Why? It touches every touch point in our lives and is having serious ramifications on how our societies are evolving. E.O Wilson wrote that we yearn to belong and to have a purpose bigger than ourselves. Without that purpose we lack meaning, and context, custom and tradition wane – yet we are meaning making creatures. Continue reading

March 6, 2014

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The art of living together and the art of dying

James Mitchell used this phrase ‘the art of living together’, recently in Edinburgh. A phrase he articulated to mean what politics at its best and most basic should be about. Think of the component parts and what they mean: ‘art’ and ‘living together’: they denote craft, non-scientific discipline, emotional insight, and an awareness and understanding of differences and transcending them. Continue reading

February 12, 2014

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The restorative economy

Need to rewrite the foundations of economics: The need for a root and branch rewriting of economics produced a book last year called What’s the Use of Economics? Teaching the Dismal Science after the Crisis. Of course it is much much harder than anyone realises to bring into the world a truly viable alternative economy to an existing dominant model. There are many vested interests, and shifts of power that create vacuums’ generate the necessary conditions where waves of multiple dissonance; social, religious, economic combine to make people fearful of change and reactive to perceived threats real or otherwise. Opportunism trying to outflank those that seek a more ambitious goal. Continue reading

December 30, 2013

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High performance organizations through respect for people

Openness is resilience, leadership with purpose: Whereas one can see what happens when people exist in an open culture, which is led by purpose rather than a kpi. Two very different stories spring to mind, [1] the organisational systems change that was delivered through a process of participatory leadership in Nova Scotia for public health, [2] in Japan with Toyota. If you start to think about designing for whole systems with real human beings operating in those systems – I believe we see a very different organisational design emerge. Continue reading

November 17, 2013

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What happens when organisations no longer fit reality

In my previous post on Scotland exploring a different reality, I wanted to share Tim Merry’s views on the need to create better systems more in tune wit the nature of humanity. Tim talks about meeting change with dignity. In No Straight Lines the core philosophy is we can do better and we need to deschool ourselves from a linear and mechanistic way of thinking and doing. Here is Tim expanding on his philosophy on systems change at a human scale. Continue reading

September 24, 2013

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Alice in wonga land, how payday loans make a profit

Payday loan company WONGA reported £1m profit per week for 2012. Charging 5500% APR on each of its 1m loans last year it’s now the biggest payday lender in the UK. It’s not alone with many other payday firms reporting increases in turnover and profits over the last 3 years. Errol Damelin the CEO of WONGA states that he hardly thinks a £200 loans get people into trouble. He’s right, cry the campaigners, it’s the thousands of per cent interest you charge on it, so lets cap it. Actually he’s right and the campaigners are wrong, on both counts. Continue reading

September 21, 2013

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If data is the new oil where are its wells?

John Naughton in his recent column for The Observer, wrote that in 2006 or thereabouts, a phrase that data was new the oil came into public consciousness. At the time I was sitting on the board of a company specialising in large scale social data analytics (in those days mobile networks were large scale social networks), And I liked to use the term raw data has no value but refined data is the black gold of the 21st Century. Continue reading

September 5, 2013

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Edward Snowden and the battle for internet freedom

Who would have thought even in 2005, that consumer politics and societal politics would revolve around data, who has it, who owns it and how it is used, combined with the legal frameworks that protect us as citizens. our destiny with data is complex. There are legitimate concerns about who actually owns this information, and when our identities can be pieced together via data flows, privacy becomes a key battleground. And there will be a pressing and increasing need to respect the sovereignty of the individual whether that be in a commercial or civil context. Continue reading

July 29, 2013

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No Straight Lines keynote @PINC

Alan Moore keynote at PINC: Today’s and tomorrow’s executives and leaders face a complex design challenge, in transforming existing organisations and economies from a linear to a non-linear economy. Executives and leaders must be able to thrive in a world of constant change and be able to create and lead agile organisations that deliver higher performance with lower input costs. No Straight Lines has six framing principles that teach the philosophy and practice of how to design organisations and economic models for a non-linear world. Continue reading

May 19, 2013

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What does the imprisonment of Andrew Auernheimer tell us?

No matter what the outcome, I will not be broken. I am antifragile, tweeted Andrew Auernheimer before he was wrestled to the floor in a US courtroom and received 41 months for hacking into the the database of AT&T and redistributing that information into the public domain. Continue reading

May 6, 2013

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una breve introducción sin líneas rectas

En una sociedad mediática, las unidades básicas son las grandes “masas” colectivas. La sociedad red, sin embargo, está formada por individuos que establecen conexiones voluntarias con otros individuos, sea cual sea su ubicación. En una sociedad red, la red se convierte en la unidad básica de organización a todos los niveles (individuos, grupos u organizaciones). Las redes sociales virtuales, las redes de medios de comunicación y las redes tecnológicas actúan como catalizadores de la sociedad red. Continue reading

April 22, 2013

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Austerity Britain, so what comes next?

Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said local authorities will have lost a third of their budget by 2015. And this is going to have serious implications for us all. so what does next look? Continue reading

April 12, 2013

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Marilyn Hamilton on wellness and urban life

In No Straight Lines I investigate the idea of what makes life worth living at a fundamental level. Why do we work, what is work, and more importantly what makes us as complete human beings as it quite clearly is not the current model. What price are we going to pay when we strip ourselves of the qualities that make us what we are? As Arnold Heertje argues we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. Continue reading

April 4, 2013

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Nothing is sacred + the meaningless cosmos = the hungry spirit

In No Straight Lines, Charles Handy takes us on a journey of what he calls The Hungry Spirit. Handy introduces us to the African idea of the lesser and greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life; the goods and the services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question ‘why?’, for some understanding of what that life is for. Richard Tarnas argues You could say that a cosmology shapes everything that happens in a civilisation. You know, when Dante created in ‘The Divine Comedy’ the whole cosmology that combined the ancient Greek and the Christian universe into one, and that really reflected the whole civilisation’s sense of what it was about. The cathedrals aspiring to the heavens that were moved by the angels and God was looking over all and hell was down below. And we were poised between good and evil, between God and Satan. And you have native American cosmologies that are very different from the Hindu cosmology, etcetera.
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April 3, 2013

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Upgrading civic infrastructure for a non-linear world

Michael Sandel argues there’s a role for governments, for companies, for civil society, for religious institutions, for educational institutions, for the media. He says all of these institutions can contribute toward forming values and strengthening civic virtue. But so many of these institutions, are in disarray or discredited, that they are not all in very strong health. And that’s part of our challenge. Continue reading

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Arnold Heertje humanizing the economy

Arnold Heertje is an economist, author and a provocative voice in the Dutch public debate. His analyses of the current situation regarding the economic crisis and the symptom it is according to him of a larger social paradigmatic shift. Heertje argues that we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. This crisis is the implosion of that model and should be used to initiate the shift towards the new paradigm, which has in his mind everything to do with sustainability and a return to human proportions. Continue reading

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Elisabet Sahtouris on the future of humanity and ecology

How and why do we as species connect and fit into the world? How and why are we all interconnected, why is it that cooperation is better than conflict? And why does that connect with a more sustainable world? Elisabet Sahtouris explains why… Continue reading

April 2, 2013

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Crispin Tickells on climate change

We are without a doubt moving into a non-linear world, a world that presents us with great challenges and of course great opportunities. Sir Crispin Tickells an early pioneer in the UK of foresight and change shares his views and thoughts on the need to think differently about the world we live in. How do we deal with climate change – he says we face a design challenge. Continue reading

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Of corporations serving the collective good

Modern law facilitates the creation and operation of corporations because – and only to the extent that – they serve our collective as well as our individual needs and aspirations. The privileges such entities enjoy should be framed with the primary objective of helping them to meet these needs. Continue reading

March 30, 2013

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The short term myopia of equity markets

In the Kay report on equity markets he makes recommendations that there should be a much needed shift in the culture of the stock market. It includes restoring relationships built on long term trust and confidence, and realigning incentives across the investment eco-system. Continue reading

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Less seed, water, and chemicals equals more food

Kumar, a young farmer in Nalanda district of India’s poorest state Bihar, had – using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land Continue reading

March 9, 2013

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The Gestalt Switch to the Human-OS

In The Life and Death of Democracy, John Keane points out that when democracy takes hold of people’s lives, it gives them a glimpse of the contingency of things. They are, he says: ‘injected with the feeling that the world can be other than it is – that situations can be countered, outcomes altered, people’s lives changed through individual and collective action.’ Do people feel this today? Democracy, says Keane, ‘thrives on humility and a shared sense of equality among citizens needs to be visceral’. Continue reading

February 17, 2013

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Necessity hath no law

When people feel powerless, their style of reaction takes us back to a different age and a different time. Visceral protest. These reactions are representative of, I would argue, a desire for a moral economy, something that Amartya Sen describes in his work The Idea of Justice. Or social justice, as Sen asks, is justice an ideal, forever beyond our grasp, or something that may actually guide our practical decisions and enhance our lives? Which also connects to Manual Castells work on Communication Power, Continue reading

February 7, 2013

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Current business entombed by a linear world?

It has been an interesting start to the year, and a number of conversations I have had have made me ponder on this question: are current business entombed by current business systems, the quarterly cycle and analysts demanding ever more? Continue reading

February 5, 2013

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Henry Jenkins interview No Straight Lines

Henry Jenkins interviews author Alan Moore: Through the years, we have remained in touch. Moore remains one of the most thoughtful people I have met — someone who reads broadly, who asks challenging questions, who is willing to explore alternative perspectives, and who is trying to construct his own theoretical model for the changes that are impacting our contemporary society. Continue reading

January 30, 2013

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Ushahidi: a story of non-linear innovation

As described in No Straight Lines – what we face in a complex challenging world is a design challenge. Here is a story of how without spending any money a group of highly motivated people came together from around the world with multiple-design skills and capability, to create what has become the cutting edge in crisis management, and a new radical design of NGO. This organisation is called Ushahidi. Continue reading

January 21, 2013

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The No Straight Lines Yearbook 2012

2012 was the year No Straight Lines was launched. It felt like a very hard year after hardly taking a breath between the research, writing and production and then onto bringing an idea into the world. But the sum of the parts adds up to quite an interesting year. Continue reading

January 9, 2013

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Austerity will not get us to the future we deserve, but creative entrepreneurial expression will

Britain socially and culturally has been shaped by our responses to successive technologies, harnessing their potential to enable us to play a significant role on the worlds stage. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. If we want our towns and cities to hum along, if we want to educate our young to be truly part of the 21st Century, if we want to create jobs and meaningful work, create breakthrough science and pharma projects, a healthcare system that really works, if we want factories of the future that can create value globally then is time for us to be as great as our finest engineers, industrialists, innovators who sought ways of getting things done that were transformational for our society and our economy. A mindset of austerity will not get us to that place. It is time for us to use one of our greatest assets creative entrepreneurial expression and design for transformation. Continue reading

January 2, 2013

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Juvenile In Justice

“Bring me more children” [1] Juvenile courts in the U.S. annually process an estimated 1.7 million cases of youth charged with a delinquency offense – approximately 4,600 delinquency cases a day. [2] Two-thirds of males and three-quarters of females in … Continue reading

October 11, 2012

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Waterstones Cambridge hosts No Straight Lines

On the 7th November 2012 starting at 5.30pm I shall be giving an introductory talk about No Straight Lines at Waterstones in Cambridge.

Humanity shifts gear when it demands fundamental change to its real world circumstances and this moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society as a whole. So what does humanity want, and, how is this aspiration driving systemic change? Continue reading

October 9, 2012

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Diane Coyle reviews No Straight Lines

I met Alan earlier in the week to talk about the book, which is about redesigning business models taking into account both the dramatic effects of digital technologies and the multiple crises – financial, environmental, social – crashing over western economies at present. It seemed quite an apt choice of reading material, having seen Danny Boyle’s brilliant vision of a Britain socially and culturally shaped by our responses to successive technologies. This moment in time really does feel like a turning point in our collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society. Continue reading

July 29, 2012

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Farming for our future

Raising Resistance explores Latin American farmers’ struggle against the expanding production of genetically modified soy in South America. Biotechnology, mechanisation, and herbicides have radically changed the lives of small farmers in Latin America. For farmers in Paraguay this means displacement from their land, loss of basic food supplies Continue reading

May 13, 2012

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Review of No Straight Lines, via Indie Reader

No Straight Lines offers a plethora of examples of how societies and companies around the world are using technology in a collaborative and innovative way, bringing success to their economy and a meaningful connection between the members of the community. Moore successfully demonstrates how many businesses and institutions are locked in all levels of bureaucracy in an outdated and inflexible world vision and makes a strong case about why we should and how to use the tools we have to “effect change and challenge an ideology that’s proven to now be inappropriate for its time.” Continue reading

May 10, 2012

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What sustains an Open Society?

The necessary conditions of a truly democratic or civil society – what Popper (Karl) dubbed the “Open Society” – is a sustained and collective awareness of the ways that things are ever changing.

My question is, have we had such a sustained and collective awareness? Or the ability to truly engage if we are aware? However, John Keane in his work The Life and Death of Democracy wonders if we are witnessing a Gestalt switch’ which makes us think differently about how we perceive power and who wields it’. Is this something that is now moving into the public realm as a truly viable debate? Continue reading

May 8, 2012

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Crafting resilient towns and cities

Recently the Prime Minister’s Office let it be known that Prime Minister David Cameron sees Letchworth as a model community wanting to apply the principles of Garden Cities throughout the UK. So how do you exactly go about creating resilient, and sustainable communities for today’s world? Continue reading

May 1, 2012

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Review of No Straight Lines by Tim Smit

I am honoured that Tim Smit the man behind The Eden Project in Cornwall, got hold of a copy of my book, and sent me his take and personal perspective on why he thought it is valuable. Continue reading

April 6, 2012

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Peter Day BBC interview on No Straight Lines

Peter Day hears from Alan Moore author of No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world and asks him ‘what next’ for the industrialised world. In his book he argues that the industrialised world is facing the combined problems of social, organisational and economic complexity. In this edition of Global Business he tells Peter Day how No Straight Lines interprets the disruptive trends shaping our world and how companies can address the challenges and move onwards and upwards. Continue reading

March 18, 2012

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Book Review of No Straight Lines

What Alan Moore does really effectively is create a bridge from this thinking to the observations and thoughts of people like Seth Godin, Stephen Pressfield, Derek Sivers and John Hagel to paint a picture of how to add the “What” and “How” to the very large “Why” he describes. The book is well written, thoroughly researched and is a great base refence source for those of us interested in and committed to helping enable the change he foresees Continue reading

February 23, 2012

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Reschooling our selves for a non-linear world

A short video introducing some of the core themes of the book No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear worldf Continue reading

February 15, 2012

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The No Straight Lines challenge: be realistic imagine the impossible

What do these have in common?

A car company built around a global community as an organisation, enabled by combining flex manufacturing techniques, open source platforms, open legal frameworks and social communication technologies premised upon cooperation, fuelled by the desire to be a great company and green; that can build cars 5 times faster at 100 times less the capital costs. A crisis management platform and organisation born out of the Kenyan post-election crisis of 2008 that can record critical information of events unfolding on the ground via a blend of location-based data, eyewitness accounts and mobile telephony, from often hard to reach places which visualises those unfolding events so that others can act and direct action at internet speeds. And now utilised for free in many parts of the world. Or, the largest organic diary farm in Britain, that has evolved a methodology that allows it to remain autonomous, profitable and sustainable in a market that is acutely volatile, because large-scale agricultural farming is mostly run on an oil-based economy, plus diary farmers are at the calculating mercy of the marketing needs and whimsies of large chain supermarkets. Continue reading

January 24, 2012

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The last of the Kodak moments

When faced with an ambiguous world some move into that world, and embrace it to understand it, listen deeply and think very hard about transformation – how to transform, how to design for transformation. This is a very hard thing to do and few do it well. I am sure we are all a little sad of the passing of Kodak. Continue reading

January 20, 2012

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Thanks to Jo Pine for the thumbs up on No Straight Lines

‘Anyone worried about where business is going in today’s chaotic world – and everyone concerned with where it should be going – must read No Straight Lines Continue reading

January 3, 2012

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The NEXT Silicon Valley is not a place it's a platform

It wont be the banks, and it wont be the VC’s – so WHAT’s NEXT for the funding of innovative and entrepreneurial companies – that small spark which fires nascent, embryonic companies into life? How do we fast track those companies to maturity? As right now faced with the increasing speed it seems of the decay of an old industrial system all countries need more startups. Continue reading

December 17, 2011

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Shopping sets you free?

I think we can shop, I think its OK to do that, but we as a population have been weaned off the idea of accountability, responsibility, public engagement, and political participation. That said I do think that the rise of the networked society, that is engaged and connected demonstrates that over the next 20 years we will see a real evolution of our current society, which will also change our values, and our sense of ourselves in the world. No Straight Lines examines WHAT that looks like and HOW we achieve it. Continue reading

December 16, 2011

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Science: ideology and politics

Scientific discovery by its very nature pushes new boundaries. In so doing, it asks questions of ourselves, our humanity, our ethical perspectives. It cantilevers multiple reactions and forces us into ambiguous places. But we should not take fundamentalist views and perspectives because without scientific discovery we diminish ourselves Continue reading

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Modern life is rubbish

And whether we call it Extreme Capitalism, or, Supercapitalism, in Sennett’s view, the “unfettered capitalism” that describes our recent history in labour markets, work schedules, institutions, and technology – renders “character” impossible. Contemporary capitalism demolishes the social and cultural foundations of “character,” and upholds instead the punishing ideal of incessant change. Continue reading

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The £2 Chicken: the adaptive edge of food production and consumption

On BBC Radio 4 today the food programme explored how we are at the adaptive edge of how we farm and retail food. With growing economies like China we are beginning to be squeezed by the needs and demands of other countries. In the BBC 4 programme Dan Saladino explores how higher food prices are changing what we buy and how we eat. From increases in food related crime to shortages of ingredients, he asks, what else is in store? Continue reading

December 11, 2011

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Britain microfinance and designing for the human(OS)

Our current banking systems locks people into poverty, 6 million people in the UK do not have access to a bank account. But there is another way. This is that story. In NSL we write about another extraordinary person, Faisal Rahman, who belongs to the “don’t just stand there Do something brigade”, so he set up Fair Finance for Business. A bank for the very poor. Faisal says we need to design money systems around people, all people. Not around the needs of a few Continue reading

December 9, 2011

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A call for a moral capitalism

the morality of markets is fast becoming the next battleground of politics. Ed Milliband has also demanded such. In part because we have reached the edge of the adaptive range of our industrial society, the cognitive limit of organisations which represent in fact all the institutions of society. But how do we see and connect to our best possible future? Continue reading

December 8, 2011

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