Looking
Forward
By Michael Albert and Robin
Hahnel
Web design, scanning, and preparation by Jens Nielsen
Graphics by Matt WuerkerPlease Note: The chapters of Looking Forward were prepared for web viewing assuming a resolution of 800-600 or higher. If you use less, the width of pages will be very distracting...
Looking Forward describes how work could be organized efficiently and productively without hierarchy; how consumption could be fulfilling and equitable; and how participatory planning could promote solidarity and foster self-management while still "getting the job done." Looking Forward offers a practical and humane vision for a truly participatory economy.
Available from South End Press.
About the Parecon Site / ParEcon Q&A / ParEconEssays / CapVsParecon / ParEcon Cmts / ParEconCourses / ParEcon Bks/Vids / Links
Looking Forward
Table of Contents
Click any chapter or section head below to see it in html
with graphics and text as in the print version
Prologue
This brief bit of front matter situates the book in terms of other approaches to post capitalist economic organization and movement and attitudes to them prevalent in 1990, at the time of writing. It provides a succinct critique of marxism Leninism and associated visions...that was more relevant in 1990 than it is today. The sections are:
What is to come...explaining the structure of the book...values and
norms chapters followed by more detailed looks at institutions and hypothetical
descriptive daily life situations and circumstances...and the dialogs included
at various points throughout, which occur between advocates of participatory
economy as outlined in the book, and of capitalism and centrally planned and
market socialism..
1. Work Without
Hierarchy
Understanding
work, workplace councils, balanced job complexes, and workplace decision-making,
the values and aspirations that guide us, and a dialog responding to
skeptics
2. Participatory
Workplaces
Uses three case studies, one built on a
real-life experience, the other two hypothetical; two in developed economies and
one in a third world economy; all contrasted to typical current conditions; to
explore in detail the institutions of work in participatory economic
workplaces.
3. Egalitarian
Consumption
Looking at
consumption, broadly -- consumption norms, councils, and policies, the values
and aims that guide us
4. Participatory
Consumption
Uses case
studies to provide details of private and collective consumption institutions in
a participatory economy, including a dialog with
skeptics.
5. Allocation Without
Hierarchy
Making the case
for and providing the logic of a new type of allocation system including
debunking myths about markets and central planning and allocation more
generally, and clarifying the need for new valuations, communications, and
relations among producers and consumers--the values that guide our approach to
allocation.
6. Participatory
Allocation
The
institutional details of participatory planning: how it works, what steps and
institutions are involved, motivations and implications, and a dialog with
skeptics.
7. Workplace Decision
Making
Revisits the
earlier case studies to give a detailed picture of daily life concerns, choices,
and decision making in participatory economic
workplaces.
8. Consumption
Planning
The nitty gritty
of the individual consumer and consumer council's relation to the planning
process, producers, and their own needs and aspirations...daily life
described.
9. Allocation Decision
Making
A last very close
look at participatory planning, entering further into the mechanics and logic
and implications.
10. The Information
Society
An odd chapter
looking at the logic of technology per se and the role of computers and
communications in various economies, particularly parecon.
11. Conclusion and
Transition
We don't live
by economics alone...but, rather, an economic vision must mesh with and foster
values we aspire to in other sides of life as well...plus broad discussion of
strategies for attaining a participatory economy.