March 17th - Conventional Economic Thinking is being challenged

As well as all the writers and thinkers who are tackling our question, I reckon we can take  comfort from the fact that new institutions are being set up to study, discuss and spread new ideas about how our world could move into a better future.

Institutions like the New Economics Foundation and the Green House Think Tank have sprung up to challenge conventional economic thinking.   Even governments have said that national success cannot be measured by GDP (Growth Domestic Product) alone and have said they are looking for broader ways to measure ‘well-being’.

Importantly, the need for this change has coincided with the development of communications technology. We used to rely on newspapers and other media controlled by someone ‘out there’ but now everyone can have a voice in spreading the news.  Social networking and the exchange of ideas and strategies (of which this is a modest example) is now possible across the globe.  Gary Alexander in his ‘eGaia – Growing a peaceful, sustainable Earth through communications’ looks to communications technology which straddles the world to launch a ‘new era of community regeneration’. So that's more good news.