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Papers in EnglishIn this section you will find texts in English only. If you want to see all publications, please refer to the general menu, under Artigos Online, Principais Livros etc. The texts, including books, are published here under Creative Commons (or Copyleft) rights, which means you can freely print, copy, send them to friends, so long as it is for non-commercial use, the text is not modified and you mention the author and the original site http://dowbor.org The texts are in chronological order, the most recent ones at the top. ...................................................................................................................................................The economic value of free time – June – 2010 / 7 p.
Link: http://dowbor.org/10timevaluejun2010.doc ...................................................................................................................................................The Ten Commandments - apr – 2010 / 7 p.
The Almighty, after a few thousand years, remembered that he had created a blue round ojbtect and entrusted it what he thought would be come to be intelligent bipeds. Thus he looked down from Above to see what was happening on the planet Earth. As he beheld how we treat the planet we had inherited, the forests cut down, the devastated oceans, the polluted rivers, the poverty of slums, the luxury of nababs good at getting rich but incapable of good management, the millions of the hungry and the deaths of innocent children, the Almighty decided we needed some stronger Commandments, going beyond such unreasonable and innocuous laws as the traditional “Thou shalt no covet thy neighbour’s wife”. Source www.criseoportunidade.wordpress.com , where stubborn scientists are engaging in research on the present Crises and Opportunities. The original Portuguese revised edition of the present text can be found at http://dowbor.org/10dez%20mandamentos.doc . Compliments can be sent directly to the Advisers, but criticism should be directed to Higher Authorities. Link to this document: http://dowbor.org/thetencommandments.doc Crises and Opportunities in Changing Times - Jan – 2010 / 20 p.
The present paper, co-authored by Ignacy Sachs, Carlos Lopes and Ladislau Dowbor, coordinators of the Crises and Opportunities intiative, was designed as a reference document, or position paper, for our discussions in Salvador and beyond: the environment predicament, reduction of inequality, decent jobs, and reorientation of the productive process according to real priorities. We suggest 12 main lines of intervention, which seem reasonably realistic, and certainly already applied with success in a number of countries. On a wider scale, they could bring about more serious structural change. It should be seen as a starting point for our discussions in Salvador World Social Forum, and is one more contribution to the already important number of paper we have received during the last months. ...................................................................................................................................................Intellectual Property to the Economy of Knowledge - Oct.2009 – 2009 / 30 p.
As the value of goods and services is shifting from the material content to that of knowledge embodied in the productive processes, an ideological and economic battle is launched about the right of access to knowledge. Open and practically at no cost, access to knowledge and to culture allowed by the new technologies is a blessing and not a threat. It is a fundamental vector for the decrease of social unbalance and generalization of the technologies demanded for planetary environmental protection. Try to block the course of this process, restrict access to knowledge and criminalize those using it does not make the slightest bit of sense. However, it does make sense to study the new rules of the game assuring a place in the sun to many of the stakeholders.(L.Dowbor) ...................................................................................................................................................Economic Democracy: Strolling through theories – 2009 / 131 p.
Economics has been seen only from the standpoint of the rate of growth, forgetting to think about what is growing, at what costs and for whom. Or else, asserting a false objectivity, we limit ourselves to make up models permitting a forecast if the dollar is going up or down, or if the last bomb in Iraq is going to affect oil prices. Here, we have to rescue an obvious issue: the economy is a means to be used for the balanced development of humanity, aiding us as a science to select the most positive solutions, to avoid the most dangerous deadlocks. Democracy is great, but the economy has outgrown our frail political instruments, and must itself be democratized. Financial crisis: risks and opportunities - jun.08 - 25p. (doc) – 2009 / 26 p.
This paper is partly the result of an international seminar held in Brasilia on March 4 and 5, and is a free presentation of key arguments concerning 10 points: Rethink the energy production paradigm; Face the challenge of inequality; Retrieve the central role of the State; Reorient the role of credit; Ensure full utilization of labor; Boost the economy by productive inclusion; Democratize government; Capitalize the potential of local development; Organize the instruments of financial regulation; Generate convergent policies in economic; social and environmental terms. Overall, the paper constitutes an overview of the crisis seen from Brazil, where inequality and environmental issues have become more critical than the financial crisis itself. ...................................................................................................................................................Financial crisis: risks and opportunities - jun.08 - 25p. (pdf) – 2009 / 25p. p.
This paper is partly the result of an international seminar held in Brasilia on March 4 and 5, and is a free presentation of key arguments concerning 10 points: Rethink the energy production paradigm; Face the challenge of inequality; Retrieve the central role of the State; Reorient the role of credit; Ensure full utilization of labor; Boost the economy by productive inclusion; Democratize government; Capitalize the potential of local development; Organize the instruments of financial regulation; Generate convergent policies in economic; social and environmental terms. Overall, the paper constitutes an overview of the crisis seen from Brazil, where inequality and environmental issues have become more critical than the financial crisis itself. ...................................................................................................................................................The Economic Crisis with No Mysteries - Mar 2009 – 2009 / 25 p.
This paper aims to introduce the main chains of events leading to the financial crisis. Drawing on the immediate mechanisms that gave rise to the crisis, it analyzes the deterioration of the regulation mechanisms and institutions and the key role played by the United States. The Brazilian situation is presented in some detail. The final part of this paper introduces two sets of proposals: one by those who want to keep the system but improve its regulation and another by those who see the crisis as an opportunity for rescuing sustainable development. ...................................................................................................................................................Understanding Lula's Strength – 2008 / 4 p.
In the results of The Broken Mosaic: Economics Beyond Formulas – 2004 / 87 p.
The way we see the world is influenced by a mixture of emotional experiences, of things that happen in our daily life, our social environment, and also, but never exclusively, theories. A vision of how the economy works is built here, step by step, looking into theories, but also into the values that support them. The book is a translation of "O Mosaico Partido: a economia além das equações", published in Brazil by Editora Vozes. ...................................................................................................................................................High Interest Rates and Decapitalization of the Economy – 2002 / 5 p.
The process has become, on the whole, relatively simple. The money you deposit in the Bank, if you have small savings like I do, yields around 10% per year. The Bank uses this money to buy government bonds, at 25%. The government, in turn, repays these bonds with public funds – that is, with our taxes. Since 25% minus 10% is 15%, we are paying the bank, through the government and with our taxes, 15% annually to keep our money. Working with the money of others in this way is, for the Bank, really quite gratifying. But the issue here is not this, but rather the practical consequences in terms of the reduction of our economic options. Social Management and Transformation of Society – 2000 / 18 p.
The American economy today is no longer driven by the automotive industry, but by the health sector, which represents 14% of the country’s GDP. While social services have become central to modern economies, their management paradigm has yet to be identified. Huge, centralized state bureaucracies are sorely lacking in responsiveness, while privatization has led to dramatic abuses. The lack of specific solutions to cope with the new demands of social services has become a major problem in both industrialized and emergent economies. ...................................................................................................................................................Decentralization and governance – 1998 / 17 p.
This paper studies some of the key structural trends that are transforming our society, and the implications for our ideas concerning how society is being managed. Both traditional liberalism or neo-liberalism, and state-centered left are here considered as unsufficient for the new theoretical challenge. Published by Latin American Perspectives, January 1998 E-mail: order@sagepub.com ...................................................................................................................................................Child Friendly Cities in Africa – 1997 / 16 p.
A study of practical measures local administrations can take to face the problem of children, and particularly of children at risk. The paper was published jointly by Unicef, Habitat, Undp, Unep, Unesco and the Urban Management Programme (UMP), as a report of the Accra Workshop on Child Friendly Cities. ...................................................................................................................................................Social policy in South Africa – 1996 / 20 p.
Estudo técnico realizado a pedido da Unicef, na África do Sul, sobre as formas renovadas de gestão de políticas sociais que a descentralização e sistemas participativos permitem. Publicado em português pela revista Cultura Vozes, julho-agosto 1997, com o título Política Social Urbana na África do Sul - Fax (011) 258.7070. ...................................................................................................................................................Preface to Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Heart – 1995 / 6 p.
Preface to Paulo Freire's last book, Pedagogy of the Heart (Á Sombra desta Mangueira in the Brazilian original), discussing the necessary bridges to be built between education, politics, economic policies and social values. The arguments are centered on the notion of social solidarity. Published by Continuum Pub Group, New York, November 1997. See also The Broken Mosaic, http://dowbor.org under "Artigos Online". ...................................................................................................................................................São Paulo: space and development – 1992 / 12 p.
Estudo do desacerto dos instrumentos de gestão tradicionais frente a problemas novos que apresenta uma megalópole de 16 milhões de habitantes, onde se avolumam 12 mil toneladas de lixo por dia, onde se acotovelam 4 milhões de automóveis que circulam a menos de 15 quilómetros horários, onde mil quilómetros quadrados impermeáveis formam uma bacia que transforma qualquer chuva em calamidade pública. ................................................................................................................................................... |
Copyleft - Ladislau Dowbor - http://dowbor.org |