John A Mathews

Greening of Capitalism

How Asia Is Driving the Next Great Transformation

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

John A. Mathews is Professor of Strategic Management at Macquarie University's Graduate School of Management in Sydney. He is the author of Strategizing, Disequilibrium, and Profit, Dragon Multinational, and Tiger Technology.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 368
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. Dezember 2014
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 158mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 610g
• ISBN-13: 9780804791502
• ISBN-10: 0804791503
• Artikelnr.: 41120799

Autorenporträt

John A. Mathews is Professor of Strategic Management at Macquarie University's Graduate School of Management in Sydney. He is the author of Strategizing, Disequilibrium, and Profit, Dragon Multinational, and Tiger Technology.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1Introduction
chapter abstract
The setting for the book - how industrial capitalism has been a boon for
the world, raising productivity and incomes, but now threatening our
industrial civilization with collapse. The principal challenge, it is
argued, is to rethink the workings of capitalism to bring it into alignment
with its ecological setting. Questions then immediately present themselves:
where will the new shoots of a green economy come from? Which countries are
likely to lead the transition, and why? Is it already too late for changes
that will work? The chapter then summarizes the argument to be developed.
2The First "Great Transformation"
chapter abstract
The second chapter opens with a discussion of the first "Great
Transformation" and the process of industrialization itself, which has
proven to be such a powerful transformative influence. The creation of
industrial capitalism was achieved first in Britain in the 18th century, it
ushered in an industrial revolution, which then spread through the West,
creating wealth as it did so, and is now spreading worldwide, principally
to China, India and Brazil. This Great Transformation (Polanyi 1944) was
achieved through far-reaching changes to the economic availability of
labor, energy, of natural materials and finance. These are the markets
whose functioning will have to change in an eco-aware capitalism - and they
are markets that are already changing in China as it accomplishes a Great
Convergemce with the West. But the industrial model being used cannot
scale.
3Why Business as Usual Cannot Continue
chapter abstract
The third chapter evaluates the evidence as to why "business as usual"
cannot be allowed to continue. It is the vast scale of the changes to the
natural world unleashed by industrial capitalism that is the core issue for
sustainability. The workings of markets, finance and securitization have
allowed an economic system to flourish that is completely divorced from its
ecological moorings. The mode of operation now is through "overshoot and
collapse" in one market after another - peaking of oil and other fossil
fuels being the most obvious symptoms. Global warming and its dire
consequences constitute the end result. The issue is to re-establish the
system's moorings by reframing capitalism as a system embedded in an
ecological matrix. This calls for a new eco-logic of capitalism, focused on
the three fundamental sectors of energy, resources (commodities) and
finance.
4From Fossil Fuels to Renewable Energy
chapter abstract
Part II is the substantive core of the book, devoted to the three
fundamental sectors of capitalism where changes are going to be needed, and
where changes are already under way. Chapter Four discusses the transition
from production systems based on fossil fuels to systems based on renewable
energies. The generation of power through harvesting renewable energy
supplies constitutes a completely different energy foundation from one
based on exploiting fossil fuels drilled or mined from the earth. In place
of international conflict being fuelled by geographical accidents where oil
is found in some countries but not others, all countries will have the
option of building the technologies and industries needed to harvest
renewable power. China has emerged as world leader in this historic
transition, creating markets, building industries, and investing in clean
technologies. Renewables then emerge as the default option for the energy
system of a global green capitalism.
5From the Linear to the Circular Economy
chapter abstract
Chapter Five discusses the complementary shift that is under way from the
linear economy, with its wasteful resource practices, to a Circular Economy
where everything is recycled. The prevailing model is based on a linear
process starting at one end capturing natural materials and, at the other,
dumping the wastes again in the sink called "nature". But we know that the
biosphere works according to great cycles or recirculation of materials,
where wastes from one process become nutrients for another. The capitalist
version of this involves eco-linkages, where one firm's waste products
become another's inputs, and entrepreneurial activity is focused on
discovering and implementing such eco-initiatives. The Chinese call this a
"Circular Economy" and it is already embodied in the country's current12th
Five Year Plan. The circular economy provides a template for the green
economy - and the default option for the resource system of a global green
capitalism.
6From Generic to Eco-Finance
chapter abstract
Chapter Six discusses the complementary changes in finance needed to drive
through these changes in the energy and materials markets. Apart from the
toxic effects of many financial derivatives, introduced without regulation
and wreaking destruction, the banking and finance sector has also developed
sophisticated instruments for creating credit and channeling finance to
companies looking to invest in new processes. Green economy projects are
looking increasingly attractive and are to be serviced by targeted finance
(green banks, climate bonds). As they become adopted by institutional
investors such as pension funds, these green credit instruments promise to
aggregate projects and lower the cost of finance, thus making green economy
projects even more attractive. Eco-finance will then emerge as the default
option, offering a more stable as well as sustainable foundation for a
green capitalism.
7The Transition to a Green Economy
chapter abstract
Part III draws the threads together to discuss the emergence of this new
model of "green development", or green growth capitalism. Chapter Seven is
concerned with the process of transition itself, emphasizing the barriers
and difficulties encountered by any change on the scale of the new greening
trajectory. The greening of markets for energy, commodities and capital can
be expected to propagate to encompass the entire economy, through multiple
inter-firm connections and driven by competitive forces. Green products
will call for new value chains that will propagate via intermediate
suppliers and aggregators back to ultimate commodity suppliers, where the
greening of commodity markets will exert their effects downstream. The
barriers that stand in the way of this emergent system are formidable, from
the protection of vested interests and continuation of subsidies to fossil
fuels, to the clash of sectional interests. Ultimately it is strong states
that drive fundamental change.
8From Green Economy to Green Economics
chapter abstract
Chapter Eight is concerned with the character of the green economy itself -
how it could be conceptualized, represented, studied and analyzed. The
argument is developed that the best recipe for dealing with climate change,
and with all other features of an industrial capitalism that threatens to
grow out of control, is to ensure that the markets in which capitalist
firms operate are regenerative, and work in alignment with ecological
limits. The emergence of a green economy will be systemic, its parts
interacting with each other, and it will call for a new Green Economics
that is less concerned with linear growth resource throughput (as measured
by GDP) and more concerned with the ecological limits to economic activity.
The chapter engages with ideas of the steady-state economy and resilience,
painting a picture of a green economy as a biomimetic system, modeled on
the successful cycles created by life on Earth.
9The Greening of Capitalism
chapter abstract
Finally chapter Nine brings together all the elements of the green that is
emerging in the 21st century, where the firm itself can grow but the system
as a whole remains within its ecological limits. There will be growth and
innovation in this system, but not the extensive growth that has
characterized industrial capitalism to date. It is likely to emerge first
in China because that is where the problems are worst and where the state
is powerful enough to drive through the changes needed, backed by a
commitment to sustainable enterprise as a way of legitimizing the regime.
This next industrial capitalism is one that will not cost the earth. But
will it appear in time, and will vested interests allow it to propagate?