Going Past Limits To Growth

Patrick CORSI , Dr. Ing. is an international consultant specialized in breakthrough design innovation processes. After an engineering and managerial career in industry with IBM Corp., IBM France, SYSECA/THOMSON-CSF and a successful start-up in artificial intelligence in Paris, he acted as a Project Officer within the European Commission in Brussels, specializing in R&D projects in advanced AI technologies. He is an ex-Associate Professor, a serial business books and eBooks author and a professional speaker, and an Associate Practitioner with Mines ParisTech in a large number of application domains.

• Foreword xiAcknowledgments xiiiList of Abbreviations xviiPart 1 A Present-Day Imperative 1Chapter 1 A Present-Day Imperative To Think or Not To Think… 31.1 Where are we by now? 31.2 Situating this book 81.3 From local to global to complex 111.4 In search for growth 141.5 On futures and their values 15Chapter 2 Situating Growth in Time–Space 172.1 Two six thousand day lapses 172.2 Complexity to the fore 192.3 The message is not the content 212.4 On the approach taken by this book 25Chapter 3 Dominant Thinkings of the Past Century 273.1 Economic dynamics evolved 273.2 Change and no change: the art of governance 283.3 What’s in a “dominant design”? 293.4 Why are dominant designs important to consider? 323.5 Operating dominant designs on an example 333.6 Categorizing four general fixations found in the economic world 343.7 On the remarkable fixation on competition 393.8 Implementing the defixation process 41Chapter 4 The Historical Contribution of System Dynamics 434.1 The pioneering work at MIT 434.2 The historical quest for cracking the “world problématique” 454.3 The historical outlet with the Club of Rome 474.4 On complex systems and the legacy relevance of system dynamics 474.5 On the psychology of “not wanting to know” 484.6 Some prevalent differences and similarities with the seventies 504.7 Getting away from system dynamics from now? 524.8 The position taken in this book 54Part 2 A Methodology for Tackling Growth Problematics 57Chapter 5 In Search for New Approaches Fit-For-Purpose 595.1 A GDP comfort zone 595.2 In search for growth 625.3 How to correctly model the situation problematics 665.4 Leaving duality 675.5 The ever-growing complexity 705.6 Searching for a representation framework beyond set theory 735.7 Shifting from problem-based to design-based methods 79Chapter 6 Angling the Core Subject Appropriately 816.1 Principle 1: find the “lowest lever point” 816.2 Principle 2: divide to multiply 836.2.1 An example 846.2.2 The overall scheme 846.3 Principle 3: going from the “two” to the “three” 856.4 Practical considerations 896.5 Case: reflections from a Haitian context 916.6 An asset base for growth 936.7 The exponential movement 946.8 The economic equation 966.9 Relationship with SDGs 96Chapter 7 Cracking Open a Growth Concept 1017.1 On the presence of dominant designs 1017.2 Some background knowledge relevant to GDP 1047.3 Discussing GDP features 1077.4 Evidencing past GDP’s dominant designs and breaking axes 1077.5 A framed template for “new growth” 1087.6 Charting GDP’s dominant designs and breaking axes 1127.7 Blueprinting new growth concepts 1177.8 Expanding on growth-related concepts 119Chapter 8 Opening Up New Growth Axes 1238.1 Energy is everything; efficiency best manages it 1238.2 Option one: “electrifying GDP” 1258.3 Option two: “efficiency GDP” 1268.4 A side note 1278.5 On distribution and its criteria 128Part 3 Going Beyond the Notion of GDP 131Chapter 9 New Growth Operational Formulations with Examples 1339.1 A quick return to system dynamics 1339.2 How to balance the disequilibria by injecting a conduct way 1359.3 Why isn’t a circular economy enough? 138Chapter 10 Discussing Work, Labor and Money 14110.1 Is work still on demand? 14110.2 Cultural factors underpinning work 14210.3 Work: background knowledge 14410.4 Fixations on work 14410.5 Work: dominant designs and breaking axes 14610.6 Blueprint concepts for extending the notion of work 14810.7 Expanding the notion of work towards a cooperation principle 14910.8 The fixations on money 150Chapter 11 Case Study: Growth Through Cooperation, Work, Time and Space 15311.1 Evolving work in co-working settings 15311.2 Why co-working as a subject matter? 15411.3 Generations of co-working spaces don’t act on the same premises 15511.4 Departing from some current views opens up future co-working spaces 15811.5 Using C-K theory for thinking future co-working spaces 15811.6 Giving thought to today’s 1.0 co-working spaces 15911.6.1 What’s critically missing in current CWS interpretations? 16111.6.2 Limits to the concept: is this a co-working space? 16111.6.3 Extending and reformulating the state-of-the-art for more conceptual expansions 16311.6.4 Structuring the K space for opening up ensuing C expansions 16411.6.5 Summarizing this thinking 16511.7 Mechanisms for expanding the original concept 16611.8 What may be a language for “working together?” 16711.9 Founding experiments – the protocol and schedule 16811.9.1 Evolving the results obtained: socio-economic implications 17111.10 Concluding with some considerations for the future 17211.11 Acknowledgments 17311.12 Further reading 173Chapter 12 A Society’s New Clothes 17712.1 The main messages from this book 17712.2 Enhancing dynamics 17912.3 Consciousness as the molding factor? 180Part 4 Appendices 185Appendix 1 A Short Primer on C-K Theory 187Appendix 2 Some Chronological Reports to The Club of Rome Commented 199Bibliography 201Index 211