Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom

For a Market Culture Beyond Greed and Fear

Rajni Bakshi

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Paperback

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English

Greenleaf Publishing
01 April 2012

Domestic trade; Financial crises & disasters; Business ethics

"Long before the financial meltdown and the red alert on climate change, some far-sighted innovators diagnosed the fatal flaws in an economic system driven by greed and fear. Across the global North and South, diverse people - financial wizards, economists, business people and social activists - have been challenging the ""free market"" orthodoxy. They seek to recover the virtues of bazaars from the tyranny of a market model that emerged about two centuries ago. This widely praised book is a chronicle of their achievements.

From Wall Street icon George Soros and VISA card designer Dee Hock we get an insider critique of the malaise. Creators of community currencies and others, like the father of microfinance, Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus, explore how money can work differently. The doctrine of self-interest is re-examined by looking more closely at Adam Smith through the eyes of Amartya Sen. Mahatma Gandhi's concept of 'Trusteeship' gathers strength as the socially responsible investing phenomenon challenges the power of capital. Pioneers of the open source and free software movement thrive on cooperation to drive innovation. The Dalai Lama and Ela Bhatt demonstrate that it is possible to compete compassionately and to nurture a more mindful market culture.

This sweeping narrative takes you from the ancient Greek agora, Indian choupal, and Native American gift culture, on to present-day Wall Street to illuminate ideas, subversive and prudent, about how the market can serve society rather than being its master. In a world exhausted by dogma, Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom is an open quest for possible futures.

This fully updated and revised UK version of the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Book Award winner for non-fiction is a rare and epic narrative about those who have been quietly forging solutions and demonstrating that a more compassionate market culture is both possible and desirable."

By: Rajni Bakshi
Imprint: Greenleaf Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 234mm
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781906093631
ISBN 10: 1906093636
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 01 April 2012
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Rajni Bakshi has been writing extensively about social and political movements in India for the last three decades. Her articles have appeared in a wide range of English and Hindi newspapers and magazines. She was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in 2000. Rajni went to school in Kingston, Jamaica and later studied at Indraprastha College (Delhi), George Washington University (Washington, DC) and Rajasthan University (Jaipur). She is associated with the Centre for Education and Documentation, Citizens for Peace (CfP) and Child Rights and You (CRY).

Reviews for Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom: For a Market Culture Beyond Greed and Fear

The market economy can be vigorous and productive, but also amazingly stupid and degenerate. The world is now much engaged in working out how mindless markets can be made to function better with the help of other institutions. In this striking book, Rajni Bakshi insightfully explores how the working of markets can be improved through a modern version of the combination of trade and conversation that characterizes the age-old bazaars.A Amartya Sen Rajni Bakshi has elegantly woven all the threads in the ongoing saga of the human family's search for better ways of living on Earth. In this brilliant, engaging and readable book, Bakshi emerges as a pre-eminent global systems thinker. I recall the time Bakshi visited me and our wide-ranging discussions on everything from what was wrong with economics and how to reform this too-influential profession to examining the potentials of humans to evolve into more caring, cooperative behavior and develop more ecologically aware, harmonious societies. This book is destined to become a classic with the kind of perennial wisdom and relevance of E.F. Schumacher's 'Small Is Beautiful'. Here are the fundamental underpinnings of sustainability and shaping a good life for all on our small planet.A Hazel Henderson