Adrian Wooldridge – författare

Från det romerska torget till digitala valutor – hur har marknaden utvecklats under historiens gång och hur kan den komma att se ut i framtiden? Denna antologi gör en djupdykning i marknadsutvecklingen och tittar närmare på marknaders avgörande roll i att utforma samtiden men tar också upp den brännande frågan om hur vi ska navigera mot en hållbar framtid. 

I tankeväckande essäer skrivna av internationella forskare, politiker och andra sakkunniga utforskas marknadens dynamik. Med utgångspunkt i de antika torgen och i det medeltida Europas marknader undersöker författarna hur tekniska framsteg, konsumentbeteende och geopolitisk strategi – till exempel den politik som utövades under Reagan-eran – har format nutida marknader. Slutligen tar boken upp de utmaningar för stabiliteten på marknaden som utgörs av auktoritära stater och AI. 

Boken finns även i engelsk utgåva, The Market.

“A tour de force of management theory . . . An insightful, hard-headed, and amusing guide . . . should be required reading for every student of business.” —Lynda Gratton, author of The 100-Year Life

In 1996, longtime Economist journalists and editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge published The Witch Doctors, an explosive critique of management theory and its legions of evangelists and followers. The book became a bestseller, widely praised by reviewers and devoured by readers confused by the buzzwords and concepts the management “industry” creates. At the time, ideas about “reengineering,” “the search for excellence,” “quality,” and “chaos” both energized and haunted the world of business, just as “the long tail,” “black swans,” “the tipping point,” “the war for talent,” and “corporate responsibility” do today.

For decades, since the rise of MBA programs on campuses across the country, the field of management has operated in a dubious space. Many of its framers clamor for respect within the academy while making millions of dollars pedaling ideas, some brilliant and some nonsensical, in speeches, consulting arrangements, and books.

Although The Witch Doctors was a damning critique (“a scalpel job,” according to The Wall Street Journal), it also argued that much of management theory is valuable—making companies more efficient and productive, improving organizational life for workers, and providing sound ways for companies to innovate while defending more entrenched plans. Building upon all that made the original such a phenomenal success. This fully revised and updated edition, Masters of Management, takes into account the rise of the Internet, the growing power of emerging markets, the Great Recession of 2008, and the more recent developments in management theory. The result is an indispensable volume for any manager.

"[An] executive summary of modern political history studded with sweeping assertions and telling anecdotes." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Thought-provoking." -- Kirkus Reviews

“A shot in the arm...powerful.” -- The Financial Times

"The Wake-Up Call, refreshingly concise and eminently readable, highlights how the modern crisis of governance compounded the challenges of the pandemic." -- Bloomberg

"The Wake-Up Call argues that Covid-19 has exposed not just one president''s shortcomings but a much more profound degeneration of governance dating back long before 2016...You will read no more interesting book on the political consequences of the pandemic than this." -- Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest 

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 (BLOOMBERG)

An urgent and informed look at the challenges America and world governments will face in a post Covid-19 world.

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that governments matter again, that competent leadership is the difference between living and dying. A few governments proved adept at handling the crisis while many others failed. Are Western governments healthy and strong enough to keep their citizens safe from another virulent virus—and protect their economies from collapse? Is global leadership passing from the United States to Asia—and particularly China? 

The Wake-Up Call addresses these urgent questions. Journalists and longtime collaborators John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge identify the problems Western leaders face, and outline a detailed plan to help them become more vigilant, better prepared, and responsive to disruptive future events. 

The problems that face us are enormous; as The Wake-Up Call makes clear, governments around the world must re-engineer the way they operate to successfully meet the challenges ahead. 

An urgent and informed look at the challenges Britain and world governments will face in a post-Covid-19 world.The Covid crisis has not just highlighted the failures of certain governments, it is accelerating a shift in the balance of power from West to East. After a decade where politics in the US and the UK has been consumed with inward-facing struggles, countries like South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, as well as China, have made extraordinary advances economically, technologically and politically. In this beautifully crafted essay, Micklethwait and Wooldridge explain how we ended up in this mess and explore the possible routes out. If Western governments respond creatively to the crisis, they will have a chance of reversing decades of decline; if they dither and delay while Asia continues to improve, the prospect of a new Eastern-dominated world order will increase. The big question facing the world is whether the West can rise to the challenge as it has before.

The belief in a governing, universal, celestial principle has followed us through human history. More than 80 percent of the world's population has a religious affiliation and even in secular states, religion continues to play an important role. Politics and international relations today cannot be understood without accounting for the element of religion in cultural contexts.

The essays in this book derive from the Engelsberg Seminar of 2014, and investigate the role which religion plays in society today and in the past. They also explore religion as a phenomenon in relation to the human condition and how it manifests itself as an individual experience. In order to understand ourselves, do we need to understand religion?

Tron på en styrande, övergripande, himmelsk princip har följt människan genom historien. Mer än 80 procent av världens befolkning har idag en religiös tillhörighet och även i sekulära stater fortsätter religionen att spela en viktig roll. Det går inte att förstå politik och internationella relationer idag utan att inkludera religionen som en aspekt av det kulturella sammanhanget.

Essäerna i denna antologi, som härrör från Engelsbergsseminariet 2014, spänner över en mångfald ämnen i dagens såväl som gårdagens samhällen. De utforskar religionen i relation till människans villkor och skildrar hur den manifesterar sig i individens egna upplevelser. För att förstå oss själva behöver vi också förstå religionen.

Vi har kommit långt från de religioner, myter och grundarberättelser som lade grunden till människans tidiga förståelse av världen och allting i den, och våra kunskaper har på senare tid ökat exponentiellt. I den här boken diskuterar ledande forskare inom konst och vetenskap hur kunskap och information har bevarats och förmedlats i historien, vilket leder oss fram till dagens digitala tidsålder och de många utmaningar som den ställer oss inför, inte minst beträffande våra persondata.

Kommer vårt informationssamhälle, under växande spänning mellan en kunskapselit och dem som känner sig utestängda från offentlig diskussion och beslutsfattande, liksom under ökad friktion om tolkningsfrihet och yttrandefrihet i den akademiska världen, att bli en upplysningstid eller går vi in i en ny mörk tid för kunskapen? 

Texterna i den här illustrerade antologin härrör från det internationellt välrenommerade Engelsbergsseminariet 2018. Huvudredaktörer är Kurt Almqvist och Mattias Hessérus.