1st Edition
The Metabolic Pattern of Societies Where Economists Fall Short
1. The Red Pill: How Real is the Reality Perceived and Represented by Economists? 2. The Process of Demographic Change: The Importance of Multi-Scale and Multi-Level Analysis 3. Going Beyond Economic Energy Intensity and Environmental Kuznets Curves: Combining Extensive and Intensive Variables 4. The Quality of Quantitative Analyses for Governance: How to Choose a Relevant Perception and a Pertinent Representation 5. A Critical Appraisal of Conventional Economic Approaches to Sustainability Problems 6. Five Theoretical Pillars of Musiasem for a New Quantitative Analysis of Sustainability 7. Building Blocks of the Musiasem Approach 8. Looking for "Beyond GDP Indicators": Bio-Economic Pressure 9. An International Comparison of the Metabolic Pattern of Modern Societies at the Level of Economic Sectors 10. Other Applications of Musiasem 11. Poor Narratives and Granfalloons Hampering the Sustainability Debate: Can we Escape Soddy’s Prophecy? 12. What Went Wrong and Where Do We Go From Here?
Biography
Mario Giampietro is ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment (ICTA) at Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain.
Kozo Mayumi is a Professor at The University of Tokushima, Japan, and is the author of The Origin of Ecological Economics, also published by Routledge.
Alevgül H. Sorman is a researcher working in the Research Group of Integrated Assessment at the Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment (ICTA) at Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Spain.
'This is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking book. As a guiding biological metaphor the metabolic flow replaces the circulatory fixation of standard economics. Many insights ranging from an elaboration of Georgescu-Roegen's fund-flow model, to the clever explanation of dimensional incongruities such as "cubic dollars", and the strange case of the elephant as a dematerialized mouse will instruct and delight the reader.' - Herman Daly, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
'Giampietro, Mayumi and Sorman clearly and convincingly show that the idea of metabolism of societies and economic systems can be a guiding principle for a new economics of production. The demise of Walrasian economics has left a void in economic theory and policy and this book goes a long way in filling that gap. On the behavioral side progress is being made to construct a realistic theory of economic decision making but the same cannot be said for the production side of the economy. The authors have taken a large step forward in constructing a framework to analyze production in its biophysical and social context.' - John Gowdy, Rittenhouse Professor of Humanities and Social Science and Professor of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA
