Inhabiting Interdependence: Being in the Next Economy

In this insightful book, John Bloom, author of The Genius of Money, explores approaches toward transforming the conventional habits of mind and practice that have led to today’s imbalance in our economic life and in society as a whole. 

Acknowledging that money has permeated almost every aspect of daily life—including our relationships to nature and to one another—Bloom asks: 

How and why did we arrive at our current forms of social practice, including organizational life and governance? 

This inquiry leads us to a major reconsideration of personal and cultural conditioning and our economic selves, as well as our systems of exchange, so that we can understand how we can be in the next economy in a way that supports and celebrates our human capacities. 

John Bloom offers an argument for returning natural resources, work, and forms of capital to their origins as gifts rather than as commodities. By adopting such a framework, we can find a deeper meaning and purpose for stewarding these economic gifts on behalf of a more livable and interdependent future.

CONTENTS:

Introduction

1. Heart’s Guidance

2. From Co-creation to Association

3. Reflections on Inequality

4. Moving to Equilibrium

5. Faith, Hope, and Love

6. From Expectation to Affirmation

7. Intimations of a Next Economic Story

8. The Center is Uncertain

WORK

9. An Evocative Ethos

10. On Compensation, or What Am I Working For?

ORGANIZATIONS

11. Closing the Credibility Gap

12. New Benchmarks of Fiduciary Practice

13. Destinies and Destinations

MONEY AND SPIRIT

14. An Argument for Rediscovery

15. More on the Intersection of Money and Spirit

16. What Do We Do at the End of Free Range Capital?

17. What Does Money Have To Do With Freedom?

ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS

18. Toward an Economics of Place

19. Place, Price, and Associative Economic Practice

20. Getting the Price Right

21. From Self-reliance to Collaboration

22. Banking in Place

23. From Transaction to Transformation

24. From Prime Mover to Freedom

25. The Day of Giving and the Commonwealth

LAND AND MONEY 

26. Between Land and Money

27. An End to the Age of Entitlement

28. A Poetic of Economics in Agriculture

EPILOGUE: A Call for Transformation