Economy for the Common Good: A Theory of Change That Works
Christian Felber
Author and Essayist
Date: September 21, 2016
This event is co-sponsored by the Theology Department, the Carroll School of Management, and the Managing for Social Impact interdisciplinary minor.
Abstract
The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) is not just an idea, but a rapidly growing international movement. ECG is a practical, detailed blueprint for a new way of doing business. ECG is a people-centered approach that could sweep away austerity, support human (and humane) development, repair our damaged environment, and utterly reorient our relationship to work, money, and the purpose of both. Its vision is just short of breathtaking, but it remains grounded in reality, as evidenced by the fact that more than 1,700 companies around the world have already endorsed its principles.
Speaker Bio
Christian Felber is an internationally renowned speaker, lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and a contemporary dancer. Christian has authored several bestsellers: 50 Suggestions for a Fairer World; New Values for the Economy; Let’s Save the Euro!; Change Everything: Creating an Economy for the Common Good; and Money: The New Rules of the Game, which was awarded the getAbstract International Book Award 2014. He is the initiator of the "Economy for the Common Good," and the project "Bank for the Common Good." Felber studied Spanish, psychology, sociology, and political sciences in Madrid and Vienna. He lives and works in Vienna as an independent writer.
Event Photos
Renowned essayist and activist, Christian Felber, spoke about his 'Common Good Economy' (CGE) theory at a Boisi Center evening lecture on September 21, 2016.
Photos by MTS Photography
Event Recap
On September 21 the Boisi Center, the Theology Department, the Carroll School of Management, and the Managing for Social Impact interdisciplinary minor, hosted Christian Felber, an internationally acclaimed speaker and lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, who spoke about the Economy for the Common Good Movement (ECG). ECG is a social movement that advocates for an alternative economic model, one that promotes an “ethical market econo- my designed to increase the quality of life for all.”
Felber explained how ECG is an alter- native to capitalism and socialism. It is a system that is based on the values that make human relationships flourish: cooperation, justice, empathy, and dignity, among others. It is an economy that replaces the ‘selfish values’ of predatory capitalism with relationship values that underlie most moral systems. Felber introduced his ‘common good balance sheet,’ a report that measures companies based on their preservation of the values listed above. The success of a company should not be determined by how much profit it makes, but rather by the degree to which it contributes to the common good.
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Books
Cobb, John Jr. and Daly, Herman. For The Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
Felber, Christian. Change Everything: Creating an Economy for the Common Good. London: Zed Books, 2015.
Sundararajan, Arun. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016.