Time dollars, work and community: from ‘why?'' to ‘why not?''

Conventional notions of work and economics are failing our communities. We need to rethink how we can provide a chance for every member of society to secure work and have a minimally decent standard of living. This essay describes an innovative strategy that generates social capital by using a system of bartering time. Time Dollars schemes transform jobless individuals in communities from a burden into assets. People earn Time Dollars by helping others and then use them to buy essential services, purchase goods, and thus play an invaluable part in building and strengthening community. By freeing communities to ask ‘Why not?', Time Dollars mobilise human resources in a host of beneficial ways and open up a whole variety of hitherto unimagined possibilities.     

Futures research from the yam patch

Subsistence gardening continues to provide a meaningful way of life on the land for many peoples around the world. Those who seek to ‘help’ indigenous peoples, however, regardless of their motives, techniques, technologies, beliefs, or good intent, invariably interfere with and often destroy traditional ways of life. The interveners reduce the future prospects for those who do have skills and knowledge necessary to wrest a living from working the soil. The Nvhaal speaking people in Southwest Tanna, Vanuatu represent a case in point, for they have been subjected to so-called ‘improvements’ deriving from geological exploration, agricultural innovation, enhanced economic trade, exploitation of an export crop such as kava, improved health care, tourism, politicians, education, and Christian religions. As a result, lifestyles, skills and specialized knowledge bases are eroded, thereby endangering the long-term survival of these and by generalization, other indigenous people.     

Community in the new epoch: the social ergonomics of community design

‘Community’ as both location and structure of relationships is undergoing change. In the Western world the rate of changes will inevitably accelerate in this new century. Our predictions include: the vast growth of cyber communities, and an increasing bandwidth, immersivity and interactivity in such communities; the expansion of the surveillance age in urban and rural communities, as rampant public crime works against community safety; an increased emphasis on social control in highly conservative communities that foster conformity; the development of Smart Towns with every service, facility and communication accessed by fibre-optic cable technology. Style will become a major priority in the 2025 community. The gurus of the age will be the Community Designers. At first these will be multi-disciplinary visionaries, who will be accorded the fame and celebrity of late-twentieth-century film stars. Their ideas for planned communities will take into account the above, but also offer grand schemes for the development of theme towns.Our scenarios indicate the continuing need by many citizens for ideals and ideology of traditional community life, but encased in new guises, with individual well-being and entertainment as priority. In general, current trends of disenfranchisement through globalization, multinationals and non-consultative government act to increase the chances of our scenarios coming about. A major social change through political awakening of the young, global neo-environmental movements and other massive global paradigm shifts would mitigate against our scenarios. We see the latter as unlikely.     

A model of capitalism derived from communication theory

The capitalist approach is in the ascendant around the world, but paradoxically it brings many serious social problems. Habermas's theory of lifeworld and system can be used to analyse this paradox. Using communication theory a model can also be devised which throws new light on the reasons for capitalism's success. The model predicts that small, compartmented organizations with excellent internal communications will be increasingly competitive. Their growth should in turn reduce the social ills which arise from capitalism's ‘colonization of the lifeworld’.     

Resurrection of traditional communities in postmodern societies

Modern societies seem to have recognised the importance of communities and the community capacity to be self reliant, and to reduce burden on the state, at least to some degree. Thus it is hardly surprising that several western countries’ current policies have been reverberating with the idea and vision of community responsibilities, participation and decision making. What kind of communities do these policies envision? Can western societies resurrect traditional communities in postmodern societies? To address such questions, this paper argues that though highly challenging, it is possible to rebuild some elements of traditional communities in postmodern societies. In fact, such creation is an ideal world to live in. For that to occur western societies should give adequate time, resources and commitment to it, as they did to create modern societies. Most importantly, they also need to somewhat alter their ‘life style’: “When you throw ‘individuals’ from the window, communities rush in through the door”.     

Community governance

American politics, especially at the national level, has become dysfunctional; citizens are deeply frustrated with their political leaders and feel that political institutions are unresponsive and corrupted by entrenched power and money. Government leaders must bear the brunt of this anger and distrust, and subsequently feel a sense of disconnection between themselves and those whom they serve. Ironically, at the same time as the ability of local government to solve problems is severely hindered due to this ‘disconnect,' devolution at the federal and state level is forcing local government to take more and more responsibility for resolving local challenges. This essay argues that the solution to this impasse lies in re-inventing the way communities operate—we need to make a shift from government to governance. The dominant model of local politics, which fit the political landscape of the 1940s–1970s, vested decision making authority solely with governmental leadership; citizens voted and governors governed. This essay describes a new mode of operation, one where non-governmental actors are ‘granted a seat at the table.' In this model the goal of political struggles is no longer to defeat your enemy, but to reach collaborative, consensus-based decisions; government, business, community groups and citizens work together; and leaders share power, working to enable others to decide issues.     

Accounting, post-productivism and corporate power in UK food and agriculture

‘In modern capitalism purchase and sale of manufactured foods is as fundamental to social existence as the exchange of a whole gamut of other commodities’ [Giddens, A. The constitution of society. US: University of California Press; 1984, p. 259]. Behind the production of food are networks of people, transactions and accounting that have rarely been examined by accounting researchers. The ‘agri-food’ sector is conflict-ridden and affects all but a very few of the world's population. This paper examines one segment of the industry – the UK – and explores certain elements that impact on the accounting environment of that industry. These are the move towards so-called post-productivist approaches by agricultural businesses and the considerable, yet not always obvious, influence of large agri-food corporations. The shifting asymmetries of power in the sector, which covers farmers, Government and an extensive service sector as well as corporations, are explored using aspects of domination in structuration theory, to elucidate the difficulties faced by farmers that force them to engage with accounting.     

Vulnerability and industrial hazards in industrializing countries: an integrative approach

The extra vulnerability of industrializing countries to environmental problems and industrial accidents cannot be understood or solved by a ‘normal’ scientific analysis. Aspects of the social and institutional context must be included, through analyses based on post-normal science. The standard two-dimensional classification of PNS is modified to have axes ‘social ‘and institutional vulnerabilities’ and ‘complexity of technological hazards’. The analysis is mainly applied to the case of the relatively rare accidents with catastrophic potential. In these, the deaths per accident in India, Mexico and Brazil are much greater than in the industrialized countries. This discrepancy arises partly from location of such plants near residential communities for marginalized workers and their families. Other socio-political factors are relevant, as the role of these countries in the global production system, the enforcement of safety and planning laws, quality of housing, and lifestyle of residents. Reducing the vulnerability of industrializing countries will therefore require major social policies and a comprehension of the limits of the normal scientific and economic approaches to such problems.     

Health care reform and reform for health: creating a health system for communities in the 21st century

If we are to improve the health of the population and reduce the inequalities in health that plague our communities and our planet, we will have to give greater attention to the determinants of health. The reform of the health care system, necessary though it is, will never be sufficient; we need to reform our whole society and in particular to focus on human rather than economic development. At the community level we need to create healthy communities that are “health-creating systems” of environmental, social and human development, as well as health care systems that focus first on improving and maintaining health. Such a “bottom-down” health care system would see the hospital become once again the place of last resort (but still a potentially important partner in creating healthier communities) and would focus instead on how to provide health promotion and health care from the household level up.     

Alternative futures for communities

Scenario building is an essential element for working on, and creating, alternative futures. This paper, based on the work at the Institute of Alternative Futures, discusses the use of scenarios in the context of community development and explores three basic types of scenarios—‘the official future', ‘hard times' and paradigm shift or visionary scenarios. With examples from Washington and elsewhere, the paper tries to show how communities can reinvent themselves and meet the challenges of the future with the aid of scenarios.     

Intercultural communication, interreligious dialogue, and peace

In an increasingly interdependent world that includes great cultural, ethnic, racial, national, and religious diversity, it is imperative that we find ways to come together as a human family while still honoring and respecting our many diversities. In the nuclear age, and now the bioterrorism age, and in the wake of September 11, 2001, it is also imperative that we find ways to resolve our conflicts short of violence. The fields of intercultural communication and interreligious dialogue provide important tools to help people deal with all these diversities in more positive ways that increase understanding between people and can enrich people’s lives. People must still resolve their conflict issues, but understanding other people’s cultures, negotiating styles, and religions will prevent unnecessary misinterpretations of other people’s behavior, which can exacerbate conflicts that already exist. This article is concerned with many positive approaches and tools for dealing with diversity from the fields of intercultural communication and interreligious dialogue as these pertain to creating more peaceful futures. It is a basic hypothesis of this article that a more peaceful future requires adoption, by people worldwide, of a dynamic, interdependent, complex (not homogenized) whole systems’ worldview, which honors both our unity and interdependence, as well as our diversity—of races, ethnicities, cultures, nationalities, and religions.

Our generation has arrived at the threshold of a new era in human history: the birth of a global community. Modern communications, trade, and international relations as well as the security and environmental dilemmas we all face make us increasingly interdependent. No one can live in isolation. Thus, whether we like it or not, our vast and diverse human family must finally learn to live together. Individually and collectively we must assume a greater sense of Universal Responsibility.

The XIVth Dalai Lama

No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.

Hans Kuhn     

Enterprise resource planning systems, management control and the quest for integration

This paper analyses how two companies pursued integration of management and control through enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We illustrate how the quest for integration is an unending process and it is produced concurrently and episodically. Integration is not only about ‘mere’ visibility and control at a distance. ERP systems do not define what integration is and how it is to be developed, but they incur a techno-logic that conditions how control can be performed through financial and non-financial representations because they distinguish between an accounting mode and a logistics mode. A primary lesson from our cases is that control cannot be studied apart from technology and context because one will never get to understand the underlying ‘infrastructure’—the meeting point of many technologies and many types of controls. ERP systems are particularly interesting for what they make impossible, and our cases illustrate how the two organizations in the quest for integration mobilized a number of ‘boundary objects’ to overcome systems-based ‘blind spots’ and ‘trading zones’. The paper points out that management control in an ERP-environment is not a property of the accounting function but a collective affair were local control issues in different parts of the organization are used to create notions of global management.     

Transforming policy through local wisdom

The powerful forces of technology, the global economy, and demographic changes are reshaping how people live and how communities function all around the world. Many observers are concerned about the impact of these forces on the quality of life in communities and people's ability to mitigate the negative impacts associated with rapid social and economic transformation. Indeed, confidence has waned in the ability of established institutions and governments to respond to these challenges. Local communities are meeting these future challenges by tapping the wisdom and energy of their neighbors and together, forging relationships and building upon the assets in their environments. In short, they are building community. Their work pushes government and more established institutions to think differently about how to create opportunities, achieve equity and improve lives. This essay illustrates how inserting the community building approach into policymaking can produce better policies that reflect the wisdom, experience and voice of local constituencies and proposes a strategy for improving policymaking by transforming the policy process itself into one that builds community.     

Reframing science and other local knowledge traditions

By recognizing science as a set of local practices it becomes possible to ‘decentre’ it and develop a framework within which all knowledge systems can be equitably compared. It is argued that all knowledge traditions are spatial in that they link people, sites and skills. In order to ensure the continued existence of the diversity of knowledge traditions rather than have them absorbed into the great imperialist archive we need to enable disparate knowledge traditions to work together through the creation of a third space in which the social organization of trust can be negotiated.     

Education and the economy: rethinking the question of learning for the ‘knowledge’ era

This paper argues that advanced industrial societies are (i) addressing ‘intended and unintended consequences’ of economic and technological development, and (ii) responding to dilemmas that cannot be solved by existing schema and routines. Paradoxically, the current education–economy/lifelong learning debate rests on traditional interpretation of the concept of learning (i.e. acquisition of pre-existing knowledge and skill). The paper argues that a sociological and educational theory of learning is needed to assist people and communities to use ideas originating from one context to resolve the dilemmas experienced in another. It introduces the concept of ‘reflexive learning’ to illustrate how to reformulate public education policies to address these issues.     

Pacific science in the 21st century

‘Science’ is often implied to be something emanating from Western Europe or its derivatives. But the people of the 24 nations and territories of the Pacific Islands also want their unique scientific knowledge recognized and perpetuated. Politically the islands are divided into 24 nations and territories, and culturally their people speak about 1200 different languages—each with some differences of culture. This is much the greatest cultural fragmentation on earth. Each culture has, over thousands of years, experimented and discovered some unique principles and evolved some unique techniques. For example, some principles of Pacific navigation (for many centuries the world's most advanced) and techniques of vessel construction, are unknown elsewhere—even today. Some pharmaceutical remedies are unique, some items of marine and plant science are not known to ‘Western science’ and so on. It is to these that the term ‘Pacific science’ refers. This essay explores the potentials for Pacific science in the future, and for Pacific contributions to global knowledge.     

Envisioning new--buying used: Are the Pacific Islands caught between alternative communication futures?

With the ‘complexification’ of today's society, due in large measure to rapid technological convergence in the fields of communications and informatics, developing Pacific island countries are faced with what at the surface appears to be a devil's choice: jump on the high-tech bandwagon and risk being subsumed by the Western-dominated ‘cyberculture’, or withdraw from the technology-induced developments evidenced in richer countries and thereby run the risk of falling even further behind. This dichotomy is, of course, false and paints a rather nihilistic picture of Pacific islands futures. The contention here is that such a polemic is selling the Pacific islands a ‘used future’. Therefore, it is vitally important, at this juncture, for Pacific island leaders, entrepreneurs and citizens to recognize that creative, long-term future strategies for planning and optimizing the application and use of high-tech communications in economically advantageous and culturally appropriate ways are desperately needed.     

Activeworlds: geography and social interaction in virtual reality

This paper examines the interrelation between the geographical and social aspects of virtual worlds. We examine the main geographical features of Activeworlds, a multi-user virtual environment available over the Internet. Activeworlds is not only one of the most popular virtual environments, it is also the only publicly accessible one in which users can build themselves, and thus shape their geographical and social environment. We examine, among other features, transportation, mobility, and property appropriation in this virtual worlds system. Further, we describe some of the influences, both from urban planning and science fiction, on the geography of Activeworlds. We also examine the social relations that arise from these geographical conditions, including the ‘rough and ready’ mentality of this ‘cyberspace frontier’. Finally, we consider the implications of this virtual worlds system for theories of the emerging geographical and social relations in virtual environments.     

Diversity and social progress in the next millennium: an evolutionary perspective

An evolutionary framework for speculating about some of the socio-cultural and genetic diversity issues of the next millennium is developed. Human populations (societies) are basic biological and socio-cultural units. The nature of human societies is shaped by two kinds of linked evolutionary process: biological and socio-cultural. These evolutionary processes, in turn, are driven by human interactions with the physical environment, microorganisms, other species, other human populations, and by technological innovations. Preservation of genetic and socio-cultural diversity is identified as a crucial aspect of social progress over the next millennium. The impact of these ecological and technological ‘drivers of change’ on future evolutionary processes is discussed. While the world's affluent societies will be increasingly liberated from nature's constraints and enriched by technological innovations, it is questionable, given historical experience, whether poorer ones will share in the prosperity. Significant innovations in socio-cultural evolution, including new forms of governance, will be required to harness the accelerating forces of change and to ensure future social progress for all peoples.     

Social justice in a cold climate: Could social accounting make a difference?

Building on the argument that justice should be the transcendent principle in accounting, we argue that social accounting invokes notions of community, shared social values, and fairness in the distribution of social resources. These ideas are elaborated in relation to local government, which provides a window on how communities make decisions about distributing their social resources and the accounting processes which guide these decisions. Fieldwork in two large but contrasting English local authorities suggests that the potential of social accounting is not reflected in the predominant accounting systems in local government organisations, but in more subtle and successful forms of ‘enacted social accounting’. Its utility relates to the achievement of short-term social goals where social injustices persist and accountants, managers and politicians seek to accommodate financial pressures to protect the most vulnerable members of the community. We identify local government accountants as morally responsible for the further development of social accounting which envisions a future for local government, and establishes links between social justice, environmentalism and localism.