Competruism: Ideology with a sustainable future

Unless the advanced nations adopt a new socioeconomic order compatible with the technological milieu of the information age, they could face catastrophe in the years just ahead. Free societies should consider shifting from capitalism, with its perilous obsession with consumption, to the competruistic ideology which provides a sustainable future through its focus on conservation. This emerging ideology employs ‘productive efficiency’ as the criterion of success in its mission to maximize the value its free societies add to the global economy.     

Democracies with a future: Degrowth and the democratic tradition

The interrogation of a possible connection between degrowth and democracy inspires some questions of political epistemology. Is degrowth a socio-economic project which can be simply proposed as an “issue” and a “goal” in the democratic representative system, without discussing forms and processes of the political institutions themselves? Is the degrowth perspective fully compatible with the democratic theories and practices as we currently know them?The perspective of degrowth allows a radical enlightenment of the blind spots of “really existing” democracies but also of the democratic theory. From a factual point of view, we need to acknowledge the existence of an historical connection between economic and political freedoms, since the claim for the autonomy of business has historically been a way to guarantee freedoms and civil rights to citizens, against the tyranny of the central political and religious authorities. Nevertheless, in the current configuration of market societies, the centre of the real power has largely moved from the political and institutional sphere to the economic one. Today the re-foundation of a democratic freedom and of new civil rights should be affirmed against a more and more pervasive economic tyranny. On this basis, a democratic re-foundation in the perspective of degrowth – which includes ecological, social and anthropological challenges – might be imagined.The second part of this paper will be devoted to the formulation of hypotheses about which foundations might be imagined for a radical reform of the democratic theory and institutions, building on degrowth perspective. From the point of view of the political system, degrowth represents a new “cleavage” if confronted with the historical ones on which classical democracies have been structured. From the point of view of the political organization, degrowth clashes with the traditional competitive electoral models; so I will illustrate some perspectives for a possible reconstruction. From the point of view of a theoretical and institutional re-foundation of democratic regimes, degrowth calls for a philosophical acknowledgement of ecological and social limits, in terms of the institution of a new socio-environmental public sphere which can lead to new constituent processes and to the invention of new deliberative arenas, accordingly introducing different space and time criteria, if compared to the ones we are used to.     

The financial system matters: future perspectives and scenarios for a sustainable future

D. Meadows considered in his report ‘limits of growth’ the financial system as a neutral accounting system and came to a pessimistic view. But the money-system itself creates several side effects and distorts our economic system right from the beginning. The money-system is not neutral. New scenario modelings considering the financial system can come to a positive perspective. Three from six systematically developed scenarios include paths to different kinds of sustainability. From a systemic view, the combination of conventional and complementary solutions can provide a substantial contribution towards a sustainable future.     

Images of the future: a historical perspective

In an attempt to create a futures philosophy, this paper analyzes and critiques Fredrich Polak’s Image of the future, a philosophy of history that contends that the image of the future of a society or culture defines a particular era and is the key to understanding of the rise and fall of civilizations. Polak’s view is compared with J.B. Bury’s ideas expressed in The idea of progress. The paper also illustrates how Max Weber’s The protestant ethic and the Spirit of capitalism contributes to an understanding of the progressive image of the future which, along with utopian images of the future, composes the dialectic of futures images. It shows how progressive and utopian images of the future have been expressed in dialectical world history and how they are still relevant today to serve as an insight for prognosis. Finally, it examines and answers Polak’s charge that existentialism is the cause for the destruction of the modern image of the future.     

和未来签约

2003年2月27日,《中国工商银行与微软(中国)有限公司全面IT合作及共同开发个人网上银行安全系统的框架协议》在京签署。此次签约的双方,一方是中国最大的商业银行,《财富》世界500强排名第243位,另一方则代表了世界最大的专业软件公司,位列世界500强第175,再加上中国工商银行行长姜建清和微软公司董事长兼首席软件设计师、世界首富比尔·盖茨的亲自出席,此次签约在金融界和IT界吸引的眼球着实不少。不过在看完热闹之后,也有业内人士透露,目前该协议所涉及的还仅仅是一个合作的意向和框架,具体的合作细节双方还在进一步协商,还需要很多研究…     

中国企业“走出去”：步伐正在加快

中国企业“走出去”经历了20年的历程，在国际金融危机背景下，中国的对外直接投资却异军突起，呈现出步伐较快的走势，这其中的原因有哪些？     

Marking the future: a review of time horizons

This paper examines the variety of time horizons used by futures researchers. It summarizes responses from a survey that asked future researches (1) how far ahead they think about the future, (2) why they choose their time intervals, and (3) the importance of being clear about time intervals for the future. Findings reveal that time horizons differ and are generally shaped by the nature of each futures researcher's work. The paper concludes with a brief discussion on the use of time horizons and importance of futures research.     

The micro-price: a high-frequency estimator of future prices

The micro-price estimated using high-frequency data is empirically a better predictor of short-term prices than the mid-price or the weighted mid-price     

Forecasting volatility in GARCH models with additive outliers

We model the volatility of a single risky asset using a multifactor (matrix) Wishart affine process, recently introduced in finance by Gourieroux and Sufana. As in standard Duffie and Kan affine models the pricing problem can be solved through the Fast Fourier Transform of Carr and Madan. A numerical illustration shows that this specification provides a separate fit of the long-term and short-term implied volatility surface and, differently from previous diffusive stochastic volatility models, it is possible to identify a specific factor accounting for the stochastic leverage effect, a well-known stylized fact of the FX option markets analysed by Carr and Wu.     

Accounting education research: a retrospective over ten years with some pointers to the future

Abstract

This paper proposes principles to guide accounting students' and accounting educators' use of Facebook as an educational resource to engage students with their learning. A body of cross-disciplinary research has investigated potential applications of Facebook to invigorate student engagement. Generic guidelines for educators who are contemplating integrating Facebook into pedagogical practice are a recent addition to this research. However, there is a lack of disciplinary-specific guidelines to inform both accounting educators' and accounting students' use of Facebook as a learning resource. Indeed, Facebook's pedagogical affordances are a generally overlooked field of enquiry in accounting education research. The principles proposed in the paper are informed by the literature on Facebook and student engagement, and the concept of digital citizenship, which illuminates the importance of the responsible and professional use of Facebook by accounting students and the development of online practices and behaviours that enhance students' appeal to the accounting profession.     

Technologies for the people: a future in the making

India’s post-independence policy of using science and technology for national development, and investment in research and development infrastructure resulted in success in space, atomic energy, missile development and supercomputing. Use of space technology has impacted directly or indirectly the vast majority of India’s billion plus population. Developments in a number of emerging technologies in recent years hold the promise of impacting the future of ordinary Indians in significant ways, if a proper policy and enabling environment are provided. New telecom technologies—a digital rural exchange and a wireless access system—are beginning to touch the lives of common people. Development of a low-cost handheld computing device, use of hybrid telemedicine systems to extend modern healthcare to the unreached, and other innovative uses of IT at the grassroots also hold promise for the future. Biotechnology too has the potential to deliver cost-effective vaccines and drugs, but the future of GM crops is uncertain due to growing opposition. Some of these emerging technologies hold promise for future, provided a positive policy and enabling environment.     

Exploring the future with complexity science: The emerging models

The ‘futures field’ can be divided into five major segments or futurist schools, together with their complementary but differing research methodologies and time horizons. These are generally subsumed under the terms ‘futures research’, ‘futures studies’ and ‘foresight’. Complexity science applications are outlined for each of the schools, and these provide evolving theories for futures thinking. (1) Environmental and geosciences treat the Earth and its various components as typical out-of-equilibrium systems with dissipative processes. (2) Infrastructure and socio-technological systems emerge through the diffusion of investment capital, with the endogenous transformation of the urban system. (3) Social, political and economic sciences are being reshaped away from the notion of economic equilibrium, and describe social emergence by means of agent-based models. (4) Human life, mind and information sciences are evolving with the development of complexity models in neuroscience, immune systems, epidemic modelling, social media technologies and artificial intelligence. (5) Business and management science involves examining the viability of successfully undertaking transactions in a complex adaptive system, in which the systemic structure evolves over time. Geographical information systems are integrated with agent-based modelling for corporate foresight.     

Have cities a future?

Prospects for the older declining industrial cities may take some reassurances from the example of the US Sunbelt, FR Germany and many third world cities. The survival of the city would seem to rely on not only a shift to information-processing services but also increasing the ease with which activities, people and ideas are able to move around the urban area. However in the present state of flux and seemingly contradictory indications, prophecy should be approached cautiously.     

Has progress a future?

Despite the scepticism of some about the possibility of progress being sustained, progress does remain possible if there is a wise balance struck between the interactions of material and social/individual change. Forecasting and planning within an appropriate policy framework, together with appropriate educational and industrial policies, can assist in attaining beneficial progress based on scientific and technological opportunity. There are dangers in drift and some common vision of the future is needed, although our expectations must be tempered by awareness of, and willingness to overcome pitfalls.     

Inventing a sustainable future: Australia and the challenge of eco-innovation

Australia's possible futures depend on choices that are made now. One key to Australia's directions and success will be its capacity to shape an environment for innovation which meets its broader economic, social and environmental goals. We argue from both past successes and future potentials that opportunities are available for Australians to frame for themselves an economically attractive and globally constructive role by shaping their strategies to facilitate eco-innovation directed towards environmental sustainability.We contrast the role of past innovations in facilitating critical developments in the amelioration of the destruction of stratospheric ozone with current opportunities for Australia to contribute through innovation to resolving the problem of anthropogenic global warming and climate change. In particular, we focus on the powerful potential role of information technology in facilitating technological and social innovation towards sustainability through eco-innovation, and discuss key strategic principles in the context of the potential of technologies already under development. Such technologies offer exciting and important choices for Australians over the next few years.     

“海”阔天空

发端于一个退休的航空工程师的海特高新,从远非产业中心的西南一隅起步,在经历了20年漫长的技术积淀之后,已经围绕着全国的航空产业打造出一片诱人的蓝海。