Welcome to the Emerging Economy WikiEdit

I welcome others to dive into this wiki. I am having to take a break from it to finish another book. I'll return soon. - Tom Atlee

Mainstream economics forces economic growth through increased consumption and profits, regardless of harms to people and nature. On this finite Earth this unsustainable approach is undermining its own resource base to the point of collapse, while concentrating wealth and power in the hands of elites.

As the traditional economy destroys itself, a new economy is emerging that focuses on

• reducing material consumption while increasing quality of life;

• stewarding the commons for the longterm benefit of all;

• transforming financial and corporate systems to make economic activity healthy;

• promoting local economics to enhance democracy, community, and resilience;
• tapping the passionate self-organizing co-creativity of individuals and communities; and

• developing economies of gifting and sharing that move us from dependence on money to interdependence with each other;

• aided by the rapidly evolving powers of computers and the Internet and multi-faceted sources of motivation.

All this is already showing up around the world - in evolving theories and visionary proposals, in widespread innovation and experimentation, and in rapidly developing self-organizing networks. Many of these innovations are emerging with little knowledge of each other, of their gifts and limitations, of potential synergies, and of the larger picture in which they all fit together as a potent (r)evolutionary breakthrough. This site is an effort to provide a self-reflective mirror for this emerging movement to see itself more clearly so it can more consciously and rapidly co-evolve, both to preserve the planet and to put in place a more benign economic order as the older toxic one collapses around us.

We have an opportunity here to co-create an increasingly comprehensive vision of the emerging economy, more than exists anywhere else. The site was originally inspired by the book Sacred Economics (pictured above) which weaves many of the elements of that emerging economy into a compelling vision of what an economy - and society - would be like if it were based on connection, abundance, and collective aliveness instead of separation, scarcity and collective degradation. As local, national, regional and global economics falter, we urgently need to develop alternatives as thoroughly as we can, so they can be put into effect rapidly and coherently. Feel free to join this effort to paint a "new economics" Big Picture that usefully connects up all the great things people are doing in this vital field.

Many ideas, initiatives, technologies, books, websites, actions, systems for sharing, gifting and exchanging and other resources are emerging in a wide variety of realms which, together, can and will constitute a new form of sustainable economy that is life-enhancing, self-governing, and primarily local. The purpose of this wiki is therefore to name these emerging new-economy elements and describe their relationships - actual and potential - so that people involved with them can more consciously work together to weave them into a potent synergistic whole.

These emerging elements are initially being organized into the following categories:

Reduce Material Consumption

Gift Economy

The Commons/Commonwealth

Financial Transformation

Local Economy

Self-organized Co-creativity

Computer-Aided Approaches

Motivational Approaches

References (This can be a book, article, website, organization, audiovisual material, project, etc. List it on its own page - then a link to that page can be placed on any page that that resource relates to.)

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