Nonviolent Political Economy offers a set of theoretical solutions and practical guidelines to build an economy of nonviolence which implies a social state of peacefulness, involving minimal violence and minimal destruction of nature.
The book provides renewed reflections on heterodox economics, ecological economics, anthropology, Buddhism, Gandhianism, disarmament, and business ethics, as well as innovative initiatives such as Blue Frontiers. It also sets out feasible solutions to rebuild countries that have suffered prolonged conflicts such as Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan. Bringing together authors from around the world, this collection includes new perspectives on the abolition of profit; disarmament; obliteration of the consumer society; expansion of collective property; Buddhist and Gandhian economies; small-scale and artisanal production, the increasing use of clean energies; a gradual reduction in the human population; political processes closer to direct and radical democracy, and anarchy.
Discussing cutting-edge developments, this book provides valuable tools to build alternatives to the prevailing models of (violent) political economy. It will be of great interest to a public of critical citizens, students and researchers from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, and all those seeking to understand the fundamental concepts of nonviolent political economy.
Introductory Chapter: Nonviolent Political Economy: A Research and Teaching Agenda, Freddy Cante and Lucas Lima
PART I A critique of conventional and violent economy
1. Money, credit and interest in light of unconventional perspective, Kozo Mayumi
2. The economic nature of man disputed - Anthropology and the "homo oeconomicus", Magnus Treiber
PART II Self-organized collective action and preservation of commons
3. Emergent collective action: complexifying the world, Carlos Eduardo Maldonado
4. Self-Organized Collective Action in the Floating Island Project, Nathalie Mezza-García
5. Buds in the capitalist desert. Emerging socio-economic forms that are changing the world, Guillermo Díaz Muñoz
PART III Ecological economy, political ecology and degrowth
6. Sustainable consumption and ecological sufficiency: discourses and power relations, Marco Paulo Vianna Franco
7. Holistic peace: A new paradigm for business, Tilman Bauer
PART IV Gandhian and Buddhist political economy
8. Gandhi, economics and the new story, Michael Nagler
9. Buddhist principles for a nonviolent economy, Gábor Kovács
PART V Disarmament, post-military systems of defense and transition towards a nonviolent social order
10. Civilian-based defense systems: leveraging economic power to fulfill security treaty obligations. James F. Powers Jr.
11. Systemic Violence in Syria and the Usefulness of Political Economy, Stéphane Valter
12. How to break the spell? Sources of violence and conflict in an oil-rent based economy. A case study of Iraq and the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Silvia Nicola
