Inhabiting Interdependence

In this insightful book, John Bloom, author of The Genius of Money, explores approaches toward transforming the conventional habits of mind and practice that have led to today's imbalance in our economic life and in society as a whole. Acknowledging that money has permeated almost every aspect of daily life--including our relationships to nature and to one another--Bloom asks: How and why did we arrive at our current forms of social practice, including organizational life and governance? From this inquiry arises a major reconsideration of personal and cultural conditioning and our economic selves, as well as our systems of exchange, in order to understand how we can be in the next economy in a way that supports and celebrates our human capacities. John Bloom offers an argument for returning natural resources, work, and forms of capital to their origins as gifts rather than as commodities. By adopting such a framework, we can find a deeper meaning and purpose for stewarding these economic gifts on behalf of a more livable and interdependent future. C O N T E N T S Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Heart's Guidance 2. From Co-creation to Association 3. Reflections on Inequality 4. Moving to Equilibrium 5. Faith, Hope, and Love 6. From Expectation to Affirmation 7. Intimations of a Next Economic Story 8. The Center is Uncertain WORK 9. An Evocative Ethos 10. On Compensation, or What Am I Working For? ORGANIZATIONS 11. Closing the Credibility Gap 12. New Benchmarks of Fiduciary Practice 13. Destinies and Destinations MONEY AND SPIRIT 14. An Argument for Rediscovery 15. More on the Intersection of Money and Spirit 16. What Do We Do at the End of Free-Range Capital? 17. What Does Money Have to Do with Freedom? ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS 18. Toward an Economics of Place 19. Place, Price, and Associative Economic Practice 20. Getting the Price Right 21. From Self-reliance to Collaboration 22. Banking in Place 23. From Transaction to Transformation 24. From Prime Mover to Freedom 25. The Day of Giving and the Commonwealth LAND AND MONEY 26. Between Land and Money 27. An End to the Age of Entitlement 28. A Poetic of Economics in Agriculture Epilogue: A Call for Transformation