A sustainable alternative to globalization

 

Peter McManners author of Green Outcomes in the Real World published by Gower.

Watch this conversation between Gower Commissioning Editor Jonathan Norman and author of Green Outcomes in the Real World - Peter McManners. In this first three minute extract they discuss the aspects of Challenges of Economic Globalization and Sustainability, the limits to resources and the effect on the environment, along with engaging your people to buy-in to sustainability and localism.Carry on and watch part two  (4 mins) where Peter discusses the diminishing power of traditional Nation States  and the growth of huge multinationals - is that a threat to sustainability? He also discusses cradle to cradle production systems and how it is being driven by sustainability.  In part three (3 mins) Peter  looks at other forms of payment apart from money – swapping work – is this a black economy or does it energise communities?

 

With the release of the HUGE 644 page Integral Dynamics we discuss this series and its direction

Gower’s Transformation and Innovation Series will have produced, by the end of 2013, an impressive collection of volumes.

Together, the authors have created an enormously rich resource base for transformation agents in the field of business and economics, but also within society at large. The series provides new, integral approaches to business, management, finance, economics, development, research and other related fields – while consistently combining theory and practice. It draws on different cultural knowledge bases, enabling the reader to effectively contextualize and practically engage in transformation processes leading to new sustainable realities in business, economics and beyond.

Embodying an enormous cultural diversity, together the series represents 12 countries, spread across Africa, Asia, Europe and USA. With each author working with and highlighting her or his particular cultural and societal context, we can proudly speak of a truly transcultural series.

The home page for the series includes prologues to read, and each book below has a free chapter to read on our website.

AN OVERALL INTEGRAL PERSPECTIVE:

…and the forthcoming: Integral Development: Realising the Transformative Potential of Individuals, Organisations and Societies

A MIDDLE EASTERN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE:

…and the forthcoming: Transforming Trade Policy in an Arab State: A Postmodern Approach

AN ASIAN SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:

…and the forthcoming: Remaking Ourselves, Enterprise and Society: An Indian Approach to Human Values in Management

AN AFRICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE:

…and the forthcoming: An Integral Approach to Development Economics: Islamic Finance in an African Context

A EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:

…and the forthcoming: Crafting an Integral Enterprise: Towards a Sustainable Telecommunications Sector

AN AMERICAN SPIRITUAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:

Sustainable Business … at last, a clearer roadmap

Gordon Pearson’s interview with Bob Garlick on Business Book Talk is a revelation. Gordon’s one of those academic authors who can talk about issues at a level of global economic theory in a way that gives you a real sense of what the driving forces are in the background behind operational businesses. His ideas on cooperation-based businesses really deserve to be picked up at a policymaker level but in the meantime, it’s open for you and I to explore and aspire to a post-crisis world that is robust and sustainable, rather than lurching from one mess to another. Gordon Pearson is author of The Road to Co-operation and The Rise and Fall of Management.
  

Sustainable projects on a world stage

The 2012 IPMA Congress made a big thing of sustainability this year, which is very encouraging. The presentations, some of which will be available in the near future on SCOPUS, covered research results and case studies as well as tools and methods, all of which aligned to demonstrate the need, benefits, and practical nature of integrating sustainable methods with project delivery from a social, economic, environmental, process and product/service perspective. They are promising an expanded sustainability stream for 2013 in Dubrovnik. Gower authors, Gilbert Silvius and Ron Schipper (authors of Sustainability in Project Management) were amongst the presenters at this year’s event.

Society expects business to engage with communities and good causes

McDonald’s is about to launch the “biggest” push for its Ronald McDonald House charity that provides accommodation to families whose children are in hospital, while shoe brand Crocs has relaunched its Crocs Cares charity in Europe this summer.

Society today expects employers to do more to engage with both communities and good causes and the business case for doing so can be and is being made. But business also realises that charities do conscience better than they can and so co-working is increasingly being sought. In Partners for Good, Tom Levitt points the way to successful partnerships at local, national and international levels.  Here, you can read all of Chapter One - Who do they think they are? where Tom sets the scene for how cross-sector partnerships, particularly those between UK businesses and third sector organisations, have emerged, developed and become sustainable.

The Importance of People in Energy Reduction

Kit Oung’s Guardian Professional article The Importance of People in Energy Reduction accurately reflects my own experience. We have done a lot since we moved to our new premises to reduce our energy consumption and pretty much all of that has been motivated by the employee team who make up our green committee. The message is unequivocal: spend time thinking about the human factors, they are far and away more significant than technology-based solutions for most businesses. Kit Oung is author of the forthcoming Energy Management in Business: The Manager’s Guide to Maximizing and Sustaining Energy Reduction.

Medalling in Lords reform – article by Gower author and ex.MP Tom Levitt

It’s not just ‘big society’ advocates that are bigging up volunteering: the whole Olympic experience has put what we do for each other – not just in sport – at the heart of policymaking for some time to come. As the Lords reform marathon stumbles to an early finish who has spotted that volunteering and the future of the composition of any second chamber are linked?…

read the whole of Tom’s article in Progress Online here: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2012/08/16/medalling-in-lords-reform/

More about Partners for Good

Tom is the author of Partners for Good:

‘An excellent navigation through the fog of private, public and voluntary sector coalescence which highlights the huge mutual benefit of getting cross-sector partnerships right as well as the significant current untapped opportunities.’ – Pam Webb, Head of Zurich Community Trust (UK) Ltd

Meet Gower and Ashgate at the Academy of Management Annual Conference

AOM , Boston, Massachusetts, August 3-7.

The 2012 programme theme is The Informal Economy and you will find us at stand number 125 in the Publisher exhibition hall. Commissioning Editor Martin West will be in attendance, he will be happy to chat about our books, your proposals, and your ideas for new subjects…

Eric Bolland, one of the editors of Solutions and others of his author team from Midway College will sign copies of their book; Jonathan Smith (author of Misleadership) is having a paper he co-wrote presented; and Guler Aras, the editor of our CSR series will be there if you wish to discuss a proposal for the series.

We are as usual sponsoring the PTC Awards ceremony.

Planet in a Pickle!

There will be plenty who criticize business for lack of social responsibility or simply failing to connect with the lives of people on the planet. Take a look at Ian Chamber’s Planet in a Pickle song; here’s a serious business person who’s not afraid to engage the future generations in the business sustainability message. Hat’s off to you, Ian! Ian Chambers is co-author of Plan for the Planet.

Organizational performance and progress is now grounded on social innovation

Gower commissioning editor Martin West is currently in Rotterdam at EURAM, he sent us this summary of how the event in going.

“The emphasis at this year’s EURAM Conference is on the fact that organizational performance and progress is now grounded on social innovation, as much as on technological progress and development. Social innovation is now a prominent feature of Gower’s Business and Management publishing and this is very evident from the titles we have on display at the Conference. These reflect the role of business in society and an emphasis on the interface between the two; the move towards the creation of sustainable businesses; new kinds of entrepreneurship; new understandings of leadership; and integral approaches to research, innovation, collaborative approaches, development and economics.

Conference delegates, mindful of the content of many of the sessions in which they have been involved, are showing great interest in the large number of our titles that so clearly resonate with the conference theme.”

To get a gist of the books we publish in this area see the leadership, innovation and business economics sections, for example, hyperlinked from the contents page of our latest catalogue .