Maurie J. Cohen

Maurie J. Cohen shows how consumer society is changing due to demographic ageing, rising income inequality, political paralysis, resource scarcity, and steady jobs being replaced by freelancing. He examines how people are striving to find new ways to ensure livelihoods and the role that worker-consumer cooperatives could play.

Prospects for Sustainability in the New Economy

The Future of Consumer Society

Elizabeth Haas Edersheim

Jerome Krase

Athina Karatzogianni

Lucien Oulahbib

Maxim Lepskiy

Iryna Lopatiuk

Costantino Slobodyanyuk

Vitalii Lunov

Vladimir Skvorets

Federico Roso

Oleg Maltsev

Dr. Geoffrey Brian West

Emilio Viano

James Finckenauer

Alan N. Shapiro

Adam Mead

Andrew Wagner

Eduardo Almeida

Olga Panchenko

Araceli Almaraz Alvarado

Oleksandr Sahaidak

Andrew McLaverty-Robinson

Serhii Svyrydenko

Svetlana Illiusha

Andrew Mark Creighton

Pavel Pedina

Maryna Illiusha

Collected Papers of the International interdisciplinary conference ‘‘Real Life and the Real Economics’’ There are many insoluble paradoxes in the advanced and technologically driven 21st century. One of these cornerstone mysteries is the factual history of business, economics, and even day-to-day technologies. If it is considered that ''money rules the world,'' then why, is it the case, there is no single reasonable idea, how and where money came from? What was the progression of metamorphosis and transformations that allowed impersonal pieces of paper and electronic signals to become today the central exchange equivalent? There is no history of business, history of economy or history of human civilization. These categories simply do not exist as a reflection of scientifically established knowledge of laws. Many researchers, treading the pathway of obstacles derived from false data, simply give up in hopelessness. ''Business is business!'' is the verdict—a multifaceted conclusion and restless justification of why some suffer severe punishment for things that are authorized to others. These phenomena, these elements of our lives, did not arise ''on their own.'' Everything has its history, its consistent tendency and its course of evolution. Business and its configuration were developed, designed, and commissioned by some on a global level. Who, in this case, is more competent to answer recurring questions about the true essence of business and economy? Certainly, immediate ''architects'' or creators. Unfortunately, the beginning and escalation of business took place several centuries ago, and it is not possible to find an architect and address to him any articulate questions. Nevertheless, we can bring together leading scholars, experts and practitioners from different fields of science and other spheres who have dedicated their professional activities to solving concrete business problems and untangling the oxymorons prevalent in the field. The International Interdisciplinary Conference "Real Life and Real Economics", united leading scholars, experts, practitioners, financial journalists and thinkers for the discussion on 6 different online panels, where the following questions were discussed: 1) History of business, technological history of our civilization, contradictions, distortions and invented stories. 2) Self-deception as the foundation of the modern world in Baudrillard's philosophy. 3) Origins of business consultants and the security field. 4) "Business heroes" of different times. 5) Origins of business construction elements (human resources, marketing, etc.) 6) People and consumer society (Baudrillard), the place of a person in consumer society. 7) Examples of contradictions in the history of business and technological history. 8) What is the formula of a business? (Which sciences compose it). 9) Where we are at? Who controls the rate of change in industries? 10) How long will consumer society last? Could the ongoing consequences of the pandemic cease its existence? 11) Modern science and pre-modern science. Why are scholars of the XVI-XIX centuries no less inferior but in many ways superior to modern scholars? How do we explain this? 12) What is the mystery of the scientific origins of economics and business.

International interdisciplinary conference

Real Life and Real Economics

Halina Szejnwald Brown

Philip Vergragt

'Few people who think about the state of the world are content with the status quo. The increasingly complex mix of economic, social, environmental and political problems at all scales requires new ways of thinking. It also requires new ways of integrating mutually supportive ideas and approaches, which is what this useful new book offers around the theme of sustainable consumption. The editors and contributors offer a breadth and depth of research from three domains: the new economics, socio-technical transitions and social practice, with a focus on consumption that meets the needs of people within the limits of the biosphere.' – Peter A. Victor, York University, Canada 'In recent years much hard thinking has been devoted to exploring the transition to true sustainability and consumption's role in it. Innovations in Sustainable Consumption offers an impressive and enormously useful synthesis of this new work. Highly recommended.' – James Gustave Speth, Vermont University Law School, US and author of America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy 'This is a very timely and inspiring book. The editors have carefully compiled original contributions from leading researchers in sustainable consumption, reflecting the important work of the SCORAI network and beyond. This is a "must" read for those who want to know where research in sustainable consumption is really heading.' – Lucia A. Reisch, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark This timely volume recognizes that traditional policy approaches to reduce human impacts on the environment through technological change – for example, emphasizing resource efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources – are insufficient to meet the most pressing sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century. Instead, the editors and contributors argue that we must fundamentally reconfigure our lifestyles and social institutions if we are to make the transition toward a truly sustainable future. These expert contributions pinpoint specific areas in which innovation will be required. These include economic policies, socio-technical systems of production and consumption, and dominant social practices. Drawing on these and other diverse areas of scholarship, this fascinating book highlights new conceptual frameworks for achieving the twin sustainability goals of decreased resource use and enhanced individual and societal well-being. Students, professors and policymakers in ecological economics, innovation studies, environmental policy and many other related fields will find much of interest in this pathbreaking volume.

New Economics, Socio-Technical Transitions and Social Practices

Innovations in Sustainable Consumption

Maurie J. Cohen

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