Front Cover -- About the Editors -- More praise for Co-operatives in a Post-Growth Era -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Introduction: Co-operative Economics, Why Our World Needs It -- Table 0.1 Types of co-operative and their members -- What economics do we use? -- The structure of the book -- Notes -- References -- Part One: What is the New Economy and Why Do We Need It? -- 1 The World on a Collision Course and the Need for a New Economy -- Preamble -- The quadruple convergence -- Crisis or crises? -- The myths that sustain the dominant model -- A new economy -- Foundations of the new economy -- Table 1.1 Matrix of needs and satisfiers -- Figure 1.1 Genuine Progress Indicators and Indices of Sustainable Economic Welfare for selected countries -- Figure 1.2 The classic approach to the economic process -- Figure 1.3 The ecological economic approach -- Figure 1.4 Humanity's ecological footprint, 1961-2001 -- Table 1.2 World population, per capita income and number of ecosons -- Table 1.3 The real size of the United States -- Notes -- References -- 2 The New Economy -- Introduction -- Scale and growth - or not? -- Table 2.1 Six possible scenarios -- Issues of resource scarcity and quality -- The meaning for economic theory - and production -- Using prices to achieve goals -- Work -- The ideal economy -- How standard wage theory must adapt -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 3 The World We Need -- Figure 3.1 Income per head and life expectancy in rich and poor countries -- Figure 3.2 Real income per head and life expectancy -- Figure 3.3 Child well-being is not related to average incomes in rich countries -- Figure 3.4 Health and social problems are not related to average incomes in rich countries -- Figure 3.5 Health is not related to income differences between rich societies.

Figure 3.6 Health is related to income difference within rich societies -- Figure 3.7 Child well-being is better in more equal rich societies -- Figure 3.8 Health and social problems are worse in more unequal countries -- Notes -- References -- 4 Are Prosperity and Sustainability Compatible? -- Introduction: on the nature of prosperity and sustainability -- What makes us unsustainable? -- Our excessive ecological footprint -- Box 4.1. The human ecological footprint - in overshoot -- Human potential subverted -- Facing the new reality -- What to do? Towards a co-operative model for global sustainability -- The spectrum of behavioural possibilities -- Table 4.1 Elements of the human behavioural spectrum -- Implications for economic life -- Table 4.2 The shift in economic values and assumptions (getting better is better than getting bigger) -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- 5 Living Well: Explorations into the End of Growth -- Introduction -- Exploring alternatives to economic growth -- The LowGrow model -- Figure 5.1 The high-level structure of LowGrow -- Figure 5.2 Business as usual -- Figure 5.3 A low- or no-growth scenario -- Policy directions for a low- or no-growth scenario -- Notes -- References -- 6 Complexity: Shock, Innovation and Resilience -- Introduction -- Examples of shock -- Figure 6.1 Deepwater Horizon -- Figure 6.2 July temperature anomalies in Moscow since 1950 -- Figure 6.3 National income: change from the previous year -- Figure 6.4 National income: percentage change from the previous year -- The causes of shock -- Figure 6.5 Converging stresses -- Figure 6.6 Global risks map, 2012 -- Figure 6.7 June-July-August temperature anomaly distribution, 1951-2011 -- Figure 6.8 Multiple equilibria -- From risk to uncertainty -- Resilience -- Figure 6.9 Shock and innovation -- What we can do -- Note -- References.

7 Finance for the Anthropocene -- Introduction -- The art of finance -- Figure 7.1 Interdependent embedded hierarchies -- Real investment -- The monetary system -- The financialisation of the economy -- Figure 7.2 After 1980, financial asset growth accelerated -- Figure 7.3 Interest rate derivatives, 1987-2008 -- Conclusion: a challenge to our belief system and implications for reform -- Notes -- References -- Part Two: Co-operatives and the New Economy -- 8 Choices, Incentives and Co-operative Organisation -- Co-operatives and investor-owned enterprises: what is the difference? -- How to facilitate co-operation? -- Two propositions -- What are the challenges for the co-operative movement today? -- A paradigm shift -- In lieu of a conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 9 Are Co-operatives a Viable Business Form? Lessons from Behavioural Economics -- Introduction -- Behavioural economics and co-operative organisations -- Figure 9.1 Unit production costs and the costs of being co-operative -- Extending a behavioural model of co-operative organisations -- Figure 9.2 Surplus in profit-maximising co-operatives and hierarchical firms -- Conclusion -- References -- 10 The Co-operative Enterprise: A Valid Alternative for a Balanced Society -- Introduction -- Physical capital's strategic importance to industrial development during the age of Fordism -- The crowding-out effect of capitalist economic power -- The crowding-out effect of the state-based alternative -- Dependent employment and hierarchical governance -- The rise of the service economy and the emergence of new spaces for co-operation -- Concluding remarks -- Notes -- References -- 11 Employee Ownership and Health: An Initial Study -- Introduction -- Background -- Theory: the evolution of humanity -- Hypothesis -- Figure 11.1 Differences between Cooptown and Normaltown.

Figure 11.2 Death rates in Cooptown and Normaltown -- Figure 11.3 The mortality-co-operative relationship -- Conclusion -- Note -- References -- 12 Co-operatives in a Global Economy: Key Issues, Recent Trends and Potential for Development -- Introduction -- Co-operatives, unemployment and economic crises -- Table 12.1 Co-operatives in selected countries -- Table 12.2 Co-operatives and job creation, 1976-81: increase in employment -- Figure 12.1 Employment in Italy in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2007-11 -- Figure 12.2 Employment in France in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2005-11 -- Figure 12.3 Employment in Germany in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2003-10 -- Figure 12.4 Employment in Spain in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2004-10 -- Figure 12.5 Employment in Canada in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2000-08 -- Figure 12.6 Employment in Quebec in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2001-09 -- Figure 12.7 Survival of co-operatives and for-profit firms in Quebec -- Table 12.3 Co-operative survival in Quebec: survival probability -- Table 12.4 Co-operative survival in Alberta -- Figure 12.8 Employment in Colombia in the co-operative sector and in the economy as a whole, 2000-10 -- Figure 12.9 Total co-operative entries and exits in Chile, 1990-2005 -- 12.10 Co-operative entries and the institutional environment in Chile,1960-2006 -- Co-operatives and long-term growth -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 13 A Role for Co-operatives in Governance of Common-Pool Resources and Common Property Systems -- The Workshop -- The challenge: how to frame the problem -- Rules as institutional arrangements -- 'Discovering' polycentricity -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 14 Is the Debt Trap Avoidable? -- Introduction.

A truly global crisis -- The global financial crisis as a debt trap -- Why so much debt in the real economy? -- Resilience of co-operatives in times of crisis and their contribution to the future -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Conclusion -- Setting the stage -- Shaping the new economy -- Co-operatives and the 'new economy' -- Conclusion -- Co-operative economics? -- Notes -- References -- About the Contributors -- Index -- Back Cover.