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Life
Beyond Economics: Learning Systems and Social Capital
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Richard Bawden
There is a growing recognition in communities across the globe,
that a fundamental rebellion is brewing. This challenge to convention reflects
two fundamental tenets: (a) that the essential activity of being human is not
the setting and seeking of goals of resource allocation, but the establishment
and maintenance of relationships; and (b) that learning about our world involves
experience, spiritual insights, values, emotion and disposition, as well as
‘pure’ reason. Relationship building, it is argued, is the essence of social
capital, while learning is its currency. Evidence is provided in support of
the contention that we are fast moving ‘beyond economics’ as an expression
of total human endeavour, and this is related to the notions of a risk society
and what is referred to as reflexive modernity. The challenges of the globalisation
of risk and thus the risks of globalisation are explored from a perspective
of ‘appreciative systems’, and this notion is itself investigated
through the perspective of learning systems. Learning, it is argued, is indeed so much more than the ‘discovery’
of the truth through reasons alone, and an argument is mounted for the quality
of learning to be improved.
Phone: 02 4588 5538, Fax: 0214588 5538
r.bawden@uws.edu.au
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