This site is dedicated to an onging conversation about the design of
economic systems models and institutions that are appropriate for
sustainable economic development in a postindustrial service economy.
A key focus is alternative approaches to valuation. Three
preliminary descriptions of the agenda are included below. The first
was created for a meeting at the IBM Almaden Research Center on
January 4, 2006. The second and third were for a symposium on
economic systems for the International Society for the Systems
Sciences Annual Meeting, July 9-14, 2006
Almaden Meeting Version:
There is a general consensus that the advanced economies are evolving from an industrial manufacturing base to a service base. However, there has been little exploration of the implications of this transformation for describing and designing economic systems as systems. This symposium will focus on the need to redesign monetary and financial services systems/institutions in the light of the emergence of service economies.
A central question is how to accelerate or amplify the value-creation potential of people in services. This symposium will explore what we currently mean by services and what is the best method to describe, explain, and implement them. On a general level, the focus is on the notion that human thought and interaction is itself an intrinsic source of value, but that the value-creating potential of human relationships has never been as explicit as more tangible sources of value, such as material goods and energy resources. Evidence for this includes a growing interest in accounting for the economic value of human capital as well as sub-economies of celebrity and prestige that are leveraged in areas such as entertainment and politics, where obvious high levels of real value are created on the basis of projections of certain human characteristics.
These phenomena suggest ways to reconceptualize and redesign basic monetary and financial services institutions along lines that might give rise to an economy of abundance alongside the traditional economy of scarcity.
ISSS Symposium Version 1:
This symposium is focused on asking the right questions. The basic question seems to be about whether and how it might be possible to unleash alternative sources of value into the world's economy through recognition of the value of human innovation and relationships. This leads to questions of methodology, in terms of how to study such issues. It also leads to a network of related questions about the meaning of value, the influence of psychology on economic systems, relationships among political, economic, legal, environmental, educational, ethical, esthetic, cultural, technological systems, and others. The organizers of this symposium are encouraging pre-work on these questions prior to the ISSS conference, including at least one working and planning session to be held in Northern California in late March. To express an interest in participating as a member of a panel that will introduce this topic at the symposium, please submit a position statement of about one page in length, that expresses your understanding about the right questions for us to be asking on this subject, at this moment in history. Send your statement to Doug McDavid, Consulting Researcher, IBM Almaden Services Research at mcdavid.@us.ibm.com.
ISSS Symposium Version 2:: Economic Systems for a Service Economy
A service-based economy functions according to system principles that are different from those of an industrial economy based on manufacturing and trade. This does not mean that the market system principles of the industrial economy are obsolete. It does mean that additional system principles must be incorporated to accommodate the economics of service relationships. Fortunately, information management technology makes is cost effective to account for these additional levels of complexity.
These additional complexities include the fact that in many economic arenas human relationships must be accounted for as income and/or assets, not as costs. This has been recognized to some extend in the concept of "human capital," although there is no consensus about the appropriate methodology for measuring it. It is also to be found in areas such as education, social services, health care, and entertainment and the arts. In all of these areas, Edgar Cahn's concept of "co-production" is relevant: Value is created for the party traditionally defined as the producer as well as for the consumer. Also, in all of these areas markets alone cannot guarantee an adequate supply. That is because they participate in the economics of "the commons" where collective purchasing decisions are necessary. This necessarily introduces an explicitly political element into the economic process. Topics include: