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Intangible Asset Gap in Global Competitiveness: Mapping and Responding to the New Economy (SpringerBriefs in Business)
by Eskil Ullberg Leif Edvinsson Carol Yeh-Yun LinThis book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving sustainable economic growth. The authors particularly focus on Sweden and other Nordic countries to analyse the IA gap using a systematized “IA metrics” approach. They also discuss the incentives needed for strategic investments into useful IA to gain national competitiveness from an economic, social and environmental policy perspective. The authors contend that despite the increasing importance of IA and intellectual capital (IC) in the economy, the current discussion has only been centered on intellectual property, which is one of the more prominent forms of intangibles. As this book demonstrates, IC and IA encompass wider dimensions of human, process, market, and renewal capital, among others. Featuring real case examples from Spotify, Minecraft and Izettle, this book offers a strategy for the resurrection of competitive advantage in the globalized economy and the advancement of some key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Intangible Assets
by Jeffrey A. CohenPraise for Intangible Assets"In Intangible Assets, Jeffrey Cohen presents an informative, thought-provoking and practical look at an increasingly important component of every business's worth. He describes the art and science of identifying assets that have clear economic benefit, but are typically not found on the balance sheet, and he provides an invaluable framework within which the reader can value these assets, despite their elusive nature."--Rick Westervelt, President, Skylist, Inc."Jeffrey Cohen's integrative approach to conceptual issues of intangible assets is creative and a refreshing contribution. He brings law, economics, finance, and accounting to the same table, which results in a comprehensive framework for understanding how value is created and sustained. His construct of 'proto-assets' and 'portfolio of intangible economic benefits' is key. Written in an easy-to-read style with many practical examples, this book will be useful for both novice and experienced professionals."--W. Dana Northcut, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Accounting Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago Principal, Chicago Partners, LLC"This volume is the perfect resource for newcomers to IP valuation. Through lucid explanations and well-chosen illustrations, it does for the reader exactly what a valuation expert should do for a client--it makes the abstract concrete. But this volume is not just for the novice; it holds insights that will be useful to IP experts in law, accounting, and economics."--Edward F. Malone, Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth
by National Research Council of the National AcademiesIntangible assets--which include computer software, research and development (R&D), intellectual property, workforce training, and spending to raise the efficiency and brand identification of firms--comprise a subset of services, which, in turn, accounts for three-quarters of all economic activity. Increasingly, intangibles are a principal driver of the competitiveness of U.S.-based firms, economic growth, and opportunities for U.S. workers. Yet, despite these developments, many intangible assets are not reported by companies, and, in the national economic accounts, they are treated as expenses rather than investments. On June 23, 2008, a workshop was held to examine measurement of intangibles and their role in the U.S. and global economies. The workshop, summarized in the present volume, included discussions of a range of policy-relevant topics, including: what intangibles are and how they work; the variety and scale of emerging markets in intangibles; and what the government's role should be in supporting markets and promoting investment in intangibles.
Intangible Assets, Productivity and Economic Growth: Micro, Meso and Macro Perspectives (Routledge Studies in the Economics of Business and Industry)
by Carter Bloch Aimilia Protogerou Nicholas S. VonortasThis book advances our knowledge on intangibles and their role in productivity growth, presenting a unique multi-level perspective. It encompasses micro, meso, and macro approaches that build upon firm-, industry-, and country-level data and introduces novel layers of analysis. A variety of empirical instruments are used in the book, such as a large-scale international survey, input-output analysis, register data, etc., thus displaying fresh, comparative evidence for Europe, the USA, China, Korea, and Japan. The book also examines the subject within the global value chain context, which is one of the most relevant phenomena of recent decades, and assesses cross-country trends, drawing on a unique industry-level database of intangible assets, based on production input data from all over the world. The book offers new insights on how to measure intangibles, how they contribute to productivity growth, and how policy can help foster intangibles investments and growth. It will therefore be of great interest to scholars, researchers, and advanced students in the fields of economic growth, innovation, technology, and business management.
Intangible Capital and Growth: Essays on Labor Productivity, Monetary Economics, and Political Economy, Vol. 1 (Contributions to Economics)
by Felix RothFor several decades now, advanced economies across the globe have been undergoing a process of rapid transformation towards becoming knowledge economies. It is now widely recognized that intangible capital has been a crucial element in the growth performance of these economies and their firms. The term serves as a useful device for capturing those dimensions of capital that are not tangible in nature but are nevertheless fundamentally important for growth. It encompasses investments in education (human capital) and in informal (social capital) and formal (rule of law) institutions by the public sector and households, as well as investments by businesses aimed at enhancing their knowledge base, such as software, innovative property, and economic competencies.Intangible Capital and Growth is the first of two open-access volumes presenting a selection of the author's essays on Labor Productivity, Monetary Economics, and Political Economy. This first volume brings together eight of the author's essays, selected with the aim of providing an overview of his research to date on intangible capital and growth.
Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Inside a UNESCO Convention (Key Issues in Cultural Heritage)
by Chiara Bortolotto Ahmed SkountiDrawing on debates about intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding at the local and international levels, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Inside a UNESCO Convention, explores the theoretical and practical implications of the intertwinement between these policy fields. Considering how sustainable development (SD) priorities are influencing representations of ICH, the volume questions how they are expanding the frontiers of the heritage realm and unsettling accepted understandings of the social uses of heritage. The contributing authors, who hail from a variety of different contexts and disciplinary backgrounds, explore these issues from a unique vantage point as both scholars and actors of the processes they analyze. Playing different roles in the implementation of the Convention, their positioning as insiders allows for a unique analytical perspective that is based on first-hand engagement with the practices of the Convention. Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Inside a UNESCO Convention sheds light on the complexity, potential, and consequences of combining ICH and SD at the policy-making level and in heritage practices on the ground. It will be of interest to academics and students working in heritage studies, development studies, anthropology, archaeology, international law, political science, international relations, and sociology.
Intangible Flow Theory in Economics: Human Participation in Economic and Societal Production (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
by Tiago Cardao-PitoThe dominant economic explanations of the 20th century are not comprehensive enough to describe the complexity of economy and society and their reliance on the biosphere. Intangible Flow Theory in Economics: Human Participation in Economic and Societal Production outlines a new theory that challenges both economics and the relativism conveyed in social constructivism, poststructuralism and postmodernism. To mainstream economics and Marxism, monetary flows transform us humans into commodities. To this new theory, flows of economic elements as physical goods or money are consummated by intangible flows that cannot yet be precisely appraised at an actual or approximate value, for instance, workflows, service flows, information flows or communicational flows. The theory suggests a systematic alternative to refute the human commodity framework and interrelated conjectures (e.g. human capital, human resources, human assets). Furthermore, it exhibits that economic and societal production is fully integrated on the biosphere. Conversely, contemporary relativism argues for the end of theory development, suspension of evidence and entrenchment of knowledge validity among local systems (named as paradigms, epistemes, research programs, truth regimes or other terms). Thus, relativism tacitly supports dominant theories as the human commodity framework because it preventively sabotages the creation of new theoretical explanations. Disputing relativist theses, intangible flow theory demonstrates that innovative theoretical explanations remain possible. This book is of significant interest to students and scholars of political economy, economic sociology, organization, economics and social theory.
Intangible Heritage: Practices And Politics (Key Issues in Cultural Heritage)
by Laurajane Smith Natsuko AkagawaThis volume examines the implications and consequences of the idea of ‘intangible heritage’ to current international academic and policy debates about the meaning and nature of cultural heritage and the management processes developed to protect it. It provides an accessible account of the different ways in which intangible cultural heritage has been defined and managed in both national and international contexts, and aims to facilitate international debate about the meaning, nature and value of not only intangible cultural heritage, but heritage more generally. Intangible Heritage fills a significant gap in the heritage literature available and represents a significant cross section of ideas and practices associated with intangible cultural heritage. The authors brought together for this volume represent some of the key academics and practitioners working in the area, and discuss research and practices from a range of countries, including: Zimbabwe, Morocco, South Africa, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, USA, Brazil and Indonesia, and bring together a range of areas of expertise which include anthropology, law, heritage studies, archaeology, museum studies, folklore, architecture, Indigenous studies and history.
Intangibles: Unlocking the Science and Soul of Team Chemistry
by Joan RyanFrom baseball to biology, an award-winning journalist highlights the power of team chemistry in this "terrific" data-driven investigation of human relationships (Billie Jean King).Does team chemistry actually exist? Is there scientific or mathematical proof? Is team chemistry as real and relevant as on-base percentages and wins above replacement?In Joan Ryan's groundbreaking book we discover that the answer to all of the above is a resounding yes. As Ryan puts it, team chemistry, or the combination of biological and social forces that boosts selfless effort among more players over more days of a season, is what drives sports teams toward a common goal, encouraging the players to be the best versions of themselves. These are the elements of teams that make them "click," the ones that foster trust and respect, and push players to exceed their own potential when they work well together.Team chemistry alone won't win a World Series, but talent alone won't win it, either. And by interviewing more than 100 players, coaches, managers, and statisticians, as well as over five years of extensive research in neuroscience, biology, physiology, and psychology, Ryan proves that the social and emotional state of a team does affect performance. Grit, passion, selflessness, and effort matter -- but never underestimate the power of chemistry.
Intangibles in the World of Transfer Pricing: Identifying - Valuing - Implementing
by Björn Heidecke Richard Schmidtke Martin Schmitt Marc C. HübscherIntangible assets are becoming increasingly important as value drivers for multinational companies. It is a strategic question how to allocate intangibles within the multinational corporation. It needs to be defined by whom and under which conditions they can be utilized. Typical IP migration models such as licensing, joint development and transferring are becoming a focal point within tax audits across the globe. Hence,defining an intangibles system that fulfils the tax requirements is of utmost strategic importance for multinational corporations. A central question is how to value intangibles in line with the arm’s length principle as is required internationally for transfer pricing purposes.Edited by leading transfer pricing and valuation experts in Europe, this comprehensive book offers practitioners an effective road map for identifying, valuing and implementing intangibles for transfer pricing purposes under consideration of both the OECD and local perspectives. It is therefore a must-have book for transfer pricing and valuation practitioners on all levels of experience.The book starts with an introduction to the role of intangibles in the world of transfer pricing including typical intangibles migration models. It describes common intangible assets across all types of industries, including e.g. automotive, consumer goods and software.Using several numerical examples, the book then covers state-of-the-art valuation methods including how to apply these methods in practice in a way consistent with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. The different country chapters written by local experts provide country-specific guidance on the legal framework concerning intangible assets from a transfer pricing and valuation perspective. Finally, the book covers practical advice on the implementation of an intangible assets system. This book offers invaluable guidance to practitioners seeking tools to apply the arm’s length principle in the world of intangibles.
Intangibles, Market Failure and Innovation Performance
by Ahmed Bounfour Tsutomu MiyagawaThis book addresses the issue of intangibles' contribution to growth at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. It provides a review of a set of new approaches to innovation growth. It also considers the issue of how to invest in intangibles, especially with regard to the market failure issue. The book focusses on three major themes: First it provides a better understanding of how intangibles contribute to economic growth and value creation. In a second part it presents emerging practices as well as examples of market failure, analyzing managerial practices in relationship to market imperfections. Finally the book links the value of intangibles with innovation and the performance of firms.
The Intangibles of Leadership
by Richard A. DavisIt's the Subtleties that Matter!What is the real difference between competent leader and extraordinary executive? Is it pedigree, experience, intelligence? The answer is yes...and much more. Exceptional leadership hinges on a complex interaction between individual psychology and unique business needs. At the top rung of the ladder, where the dynamics are most complicated, subtle adjustments in style can produce outstanding results.In his new book, The Intangibles of Leadership, Management Psychologist Richard Davis, Ph.D., uncovers patterns in the attributes that truly distinguish those who succeed at the top. What he found was that extraordinary leaders possess certain characteristics that fall between the lines of existing leadership models, yet are fundamental to executive success. Davis explains each of these qualities, the people who exemplify them, how to detect them in others, and most importantly, how to develop the subtle characteristics that will enable them to stand out from the pack.Learn why...It's often better to aim for silver than for goldPlaying hard to get attracts people to youIt's important to have a slightly inflated view of your abilitiesYour peripheral vision is so importantIt's ok to get angry with your teamSo many extraordinary executives have gone through crises early in their lives
Integer Programming: Theory and Practice
by John K. KarlofInteger Programming: Theory and Practice contains refereed articles that explore both theoretical aspects of integer programming as well as major applications. This volume begins with a description of new constructive and iterative search methods for solving the Boolean optimization problem (BOOP). Following a review of recent developments
Integral Advantage: Revisiting Emerging Markets and Societies (Transformation and Innovation)
by Ronnie LessemThe BRICS countries are heralded for their double digit economic growth rates and while this has indeed been impressive, particularly in India and China, it is clear that significant social and environmental fault-lines have developed in these regions. Building on the integral heritage of Ronnie Lessem’s previous work through Trans4m’s Centre for Integral Development, here he makes the case for ’integral advantage’, a philosophy inclusive of nature and culture, technology and economy, altogether accommodated by an integral polity. Moreover, and as will be illustrated in each of the cases of the five BRICS countries, each one is an integral entity in its own particular right, and needs to be viewed, and duly evolved, as such. In the final analysis, he argues, then, that around the world, the failure of a society to develop is not due to its economic limitations, in isolation, but to the failure of nature and culture, technology and economy, to co-evolve in unison, under the rubric of an integral polity, altogether aligned with that particular society. Drawing on the approach he has developed towards the release of a society’s genius, in each case, he demonstrates how the pursuit of integral advantage may actually arise. Most specifically, he indicates how a balance between the spiritual and the material, on the one hand, and the natural and the social, on the other, needs to be achieved.
An Integral Approach to Development Economics: Islamic Finance in an African Context (Transformation and Innovation)
by Basheer A. OshodiDeveloping economies such as those in sub-Saharan Africa are searching for realistic economic policy prescriptions. Despite economic growth in countries like Nigeria, poverty and unemployment blight the lives of many, in the midst of plenty. Simultaneously, much neo-classical economic thought is being questioned against the backdrop of global economic meltdown, giving rise to inquiry about more integral approaches to sustainable development. In An Integral Approach to Development Economics, Basheer Oshodi examines modernization theories, dependency theories, world system theories and emerging 21st century economic theories and links a neo-modern mix of economic thought with the practicalities of finance in parts of the World where poverty is rife. In a specifically African setting, over half of the population are Muslims, Oshodi considers Islamic finance in the context of the triple heritage of indigenous culture, Westernized Christianity, and Islam. He argues that the principles of Islamic banking and finance can be integrated with other elements of that heritage, focusing on meeting the challenges of poverty and unemployment. Islamic finance is not just a religiously-oriented, Sharia-compliant, alternative financial model. It can contribute to overall socio-economic transformation and a wider, people-centred approach to economic development. International organizations, financial institutions, reserve banks, policy makers, donor agencies and students will find resonance in this valuable addition to Gower’s Transformation and Innovation Series.
An Integral Approach to Transformative Leadership: Dancing Through the Storm
by Dorrian AikenThis essential new book is a practical "how-to" guide to enhancing the quality of relationships between leaders and individuals in organisations – the proven key to maximising performance, building resilience, and retaining talent. Integral vision, seen through each of the four quadrants described in this book, gives access to a range of perspectives, irreducible to one another but each significant in adding a kaleidoscope of understanding to a topic or body of knowledge. The author draws on recent research which focuses on Integral theory and emphasises the benefits to an organisation, including cultivating, at several levels, leaders and teams through coaching, improving the quality of meetings, introducing an understanding of emotional intelligence, and more recently, addressing adult stages of development. The book also demonstrates how the Integral quadrants can bring clarity to interpersonal and cross-sector communication, especially in diagnosing, planning, and implementing team and organisational strategy. The concepts and practical skills explored in this book will be a valuable resource for senior leaders, human resources specialists, and in-house and external coaches focusing on leadership development, as well as students and trainers of coaching.
Integral Community: Political Economy to Social Commons (Transformation and Innovation)
by Ronnie LessemIntegral Community moves the transformation journey for enterprises and society on from the stages covered in earlier books in Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series, which describe a new macro-economic framework and which have examined alternative development with different local communities, bringing wide cultural perspectives to practical implementation of authentic or integral development. Here, the authors argue that there are two major fields of force prevailing in today's world. The one reflects our common heritage, whereby East and West, North and South are coming ever closer together - the global commons. The other reflects local and national singularity, where the notion of feeding off ancient local heritage and talent is key. They also identify four different culturally laden worldviews as Southern - humanistic, Eastern - holistic, Northern - rational, and Western - pragmatic. The enterprise and social innovation in Africa with which Lessem's co-authors are involved provides an object lesson in the sort of differentiation and integration needed in order to operate, socio-economically, with local identity and global integrity. It provides in this case a 'Southern' worldview background against which to examine communally based self-sufficiency; culturally based developmental economy; knowledge based social economy; and finally, the move towards what the authors describe as a living economy. All illustrated through a rural case, Chinyika, with which they have been intimately involved, whereby 100,000 have become self sufficient over the past five years. Integral Community should be read by academics and students of business, economics, development studies and agriculture, and by policy makers, particularly those concerned with the developing world in general and Africa in particular.
Integral Community Enterprise in Africa: Communitalism as an Alternative to Capitalism (Transformation and Innovation)
by Anselm AdodoAt a time of global economic crisis and disillusionment with capitalism, Adodo offers refreshing and positive insight into a more integral way of business management, enterprise and community development as well as holistic healing in Africa. For over three decades, Africa was the recipient of billions of dollars in aid funds that were meant to catapult the continent from undeveloped to developed status. Yet the more the aid poured in, the poorer African countries became. The devastating effect of western economic models in Africa that followed is well documented. Integral Community Enterprise in Africa exposes the limitations of existing theories, such as capitalism, socialism and communism, and shows how western theories were imposed on Africa. Such imposition of concepts and ideas is not only demeaning but also unsustainable, serving only the interest of the elite. Father Anselm Adodo argues for the need to have a southern theory to serve as an alternative to western theories. The majority of African intellectuals and activists, while criticizing existing theories, often do not provide alternative theories to address the prevalent inadequacies entrenched in conventional social, political and economic systems. This revolutionary book aims to address this lapse and proposes the theory of communitalism as a more indigenous, sustainable and integral approach to tackling the social, political, economic and developmental challenges of today’s Africa. There is an African alternative to capitalism, socialism and communism – a surer path to sustainable development in and from Africa. This is a book that is positioned at the very core of a much needed African Renaissance. A profoundly new approach to development in Africa, this is essential reading for anyone concerned with authentic development in Africa and in the world.
Integral Development: Realising the Transformative Potential of Individuals, Organisations and Societies (Transformation and Innovation)
by Alexander Schieffer Ronnie LessemAlexander Schieffer and Ronnie Lessem introduce a groundbreaking development framework and process to address the most burning issues that humanity faces. While conventional top-down, outside-in development has reached a cul-de-sac, a new, integral form of development is emerging around the world. Integral Development uniquely articulates this emergent approach, and invites us to fully participate in this process. The integral approach has been researched and framed over decades of in-depth experience in transformative development education and practice all over the world. It uniquely combines four mutually reinforcing perspectives: nature and community; culture and spirituality; science, systems and technology; and enterprise and economics. Conventional development theory and practice has prioritized the latter two perspectives, neglecting the former two. This has caused massive imbalances in today’s world. The four interconnected perspectives allow for a transformative and integrated engagement with core development issues in a way that is locally relevant and globally resonant. Throughout, the practical impact of Integral Development is brought to life through highly innovative cases from around the globe, drawing on the authors` first-hand experience. This makes the book a living demonstration of the power of this pioneering approach. Integral Development shows how individual, organizational and societal developments need to be interconnected to release a society’s full potential. It shifts the responsibility for large-scale development from often-distant experts and organizations to each individual, community, enterprise and institution within the society. It is essential reading - and a call to action - for everyone concerned with the current state of local and global development.
Integral Dynamics: Political Economy, Cultural Dynamics and the Future of the University (Transformation and Innovation)
by Ronnie Lessem Alexander Schieffer Samuel D. RimaThe theory of integral dynamics is based on the view that the development of individual leaders or entrepreneurs requires the simultaneous development of institutions and societies. It seeks a specific way forward for each society, fundamentally different from, but drawing on, its past. Nearly every natural science has been transformed from an analytically-based approach to a dynamic one: now it is time for society and culture to follow suit locally and globally. Each culture, discipline and person is incomplete and is in need of others in order to develop and evolve. This book sets out a curriculum for a new integral, trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary area of study, inclusive of, but extending beyond, economics and enterprise. It embraces a trans-personal perspective, linking self with community, enterprise and society, and focusing on the vital relationship between local identity and global integrity. For the government policy maker, the enlightened business practitioner, and the student and researcher into economics and enterprise, the new discipline is set out here in complete detail by a multi-national team of Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series authors. Illuminated with examples relating the conceptual to the practical, this is a text, not for a pre-modern, modern, or even post-modern era, but for what has been called our trans-modern age.
Integral Dynamics: Political Economy, Cultural Dynamics and the Future of the University
by Ronnie Lessem Alexander Schieffer Junie T. Tong Samuel D. RimaThe theory of integral dynamics is based on the view that the development of individual leaders or entrepreneurs requires the simultaneous development of institutions and societies. It seeks a specific way forward for each society, fundamentally different from, but drawing on, its past. Nearly every natural science has been transformed from an analytically-based approach to a dynamic one: now it is time for society and culture to follow suit locally and globally. Each culture, discipline and person is incomplete and is in need of others in order to develop and evolve.
Integral Economics: Releasing the Economic Genius of Your Society (Transformation and Innovation)
by Ronnie Lessem Alexander SchiefferWhy on earth is economics perceived to come in only one or at best two different a-cultural if not a-moral guises? There are real, and many, alternatives to the economic mainstream. The trouble is, of course, that they are hidden from us. In Integral Economics Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer pave the way for a sustainable approach to economics, building on the richness of diverse economic approaches from all over the globe. By introducing the most evolved economic perspectives and bringing them into creative dialogue they argue that neither individual enterprises nor wider society will be transformed for the better without a new economic perspective. Here, they introduce a comprehensive framework based on the same 'Four Worlds' model that is applied to enterprise and research in their earlier works. Given the richness of even mainstream economic theory reviewed in this book, let alone the variety of alternative approaches introduced, it is frustrating that policymakers and business practitioners are impoverished by a lack of apparent economic choice - between a seemingly failing capitalism and an already failed communism. The 'villains of the piece' in relation to this lack of choice are not so much the financial community and governments, though they do have much to answer, but the schools of economics and the business schools, that have created the very social ethos, the philosophical principles, and the mathematical models, that influence events. Integral Economics is partly addressed to academics and students in those very schools, who have either realized the error of their ways, or, less dramatically, are curious to explore whether our businesses and communities could be run in a different way. It will be welcomed by informed senior practitioners, eager to understand the current rethink of economic theory and practice and to discover how to position themselves, their organizations, and their society within a new framework.
Integral Economics: Releasing the Economic Genius of Your Society
by Ronnie Lessem Alexander SchiefferThis series on business transformation and social innovation comprises a range of books informing practitioners, consultants, organization developers, and academics how businesses and other organizations set in the context of whole economies and societies can and will have to be transformed into viable 21st Century enterprises. A new kind of R&D, involving social, as well as technological innovation, needs to be supported by integrated, active and participative research in the social sciences. Focusing on new, emerging kinds of public, social and sustainable entrepreneurship originating from all corners of the world and from different cultures, books in this series will help those operating in the area of interface between business and society to mediate between the two in the way that business schools once did until, as is now argued, they lost their way and business leaders came, in many cases, to be seen as at best incompetent and at worst venal and untrustworthy.
Integral Finance – Akhuwat: A Case Study of the Solidarity Economy (Transformation and Innovation)
by Muhammad Amjad Saqib Aneeqa MalikThere are many misconceptions and concerns regarding Islamic societies and how Muslim countries have failed to come up with their own localised solutions to socio-economic problems in dealing with poverty alleviation and societal development. This book explores why there is so much disconnect between spirituality and enterprise development in the world today, and how a part of the Islamic world, in fact located in Pakistan, can be part of the solution rather than being central to the problem. This book builds upon Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer’s theory of ‘integral dynamics’ which works through a fourfold rhythm of the GENE. Set against a mono-cultural perspective, the authors highlight the ever-increasing and deepening divide between Western and Islamic cultures. Through the course of the book, the authors use the transformational GENE (Grounding, Emergence, Navigation, Effect) rhythm developed by Lessem and Schieffer to take readers through the 4C (Call, Context, Co-creation and Contribution) process, articulated to CAREing-4-Society. They ground their call in Akhuwat’s community of Akhuwateers (donors, beneficiaries, borrowers, volunteers and replicators), to explore alternative models of spiritually based finance through an emerging SOUL-idarity paradigm. Furthermore, through these models and Akhuwat’s CARE (Community, Awareness, Research, Embodiment) process, they put forward that encouraging community activism, raising awareness around Islamic practices of Qard-e-Hasan, institutionalising their innovative research, and finally transforming and educating the community, will provide an alternative to microfinance for poverty alleviation. Showcasing an unconventional spiritual-financial solution, deeply immersed in spirituality and infused with local moral values and traditions, this book demonstrates how poverty can be alleviated in countries around the world, specifically, in developing Muslim countries.
Integral Green Slovenia: Towards a Social Knowledge and Value Based Society and Economy at the Heart of Europe (Integral Green Society and Economy)
by Darja Piciga Alexander Schieffer Ronnie LessemRonnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer's Integral Green Society and Economy series has three overarching aims. The first is to link together two major movements of our time, one philosophical, the other practical. The philosophical movement is towards what many today are calling an 'integral' age, while the practical is the 'green' movement, duly aligned with that of sustainable development. The second is to blend together elements of nature and community, culture and spirituality, science and technology, politics and economics, thus serving to bring about an 'integral green' vision, albeit with a focus on business and economics. As such, the authors transcend the limitations to sustainable development and environmental economics, which are overly ecological, if not also technological, in orientation, and exclude social and cultural elements. Thirdly, this particular volume, with Darja Piciga, focuses specifically on Slovenia, as well as on Europe generally, drawing on the particular issues and capacities that this country and continent represents, particularly for sustainable development and social knowledge-based economy. The emphasis on Slovenia arose, not only because it lies at the heart of Europe, but because a specific movement for an Integral Green Slovenian Society and Economy, has been co-evolved there, by the three editors in conjunction with Slovene organisations, communities and movements, with a view to integrating existing and emerging knowledge resources, initiatives and practices into a model, as an alternative to austerity, for Slovenia and other European countries.