The Next Economy

HOW THIS SITE WORKS

Our conversation on the economy has 4 parts:

1. A call to unfold the next economy
2. Recent resources produced by New Commons
3. Projects executed by New Commons
4. Links and other resources on shaping the next economy  

Regarding the next economy, the strategic focus of New Commons is executing consulting projects and engaging practitioners that are shaping it. This material is a sample of our thinking and what we are doing to shape the next economy.

The Next Economy

Our call is to build the next economy and stop the madness of putting forward incomplete economic metaphors as if we are building -- and we are not -- the creative economy, knowledge economy or a sustainable/green economy. Using such metaphors divides us and are incomplete. By using such slices of the economy we become blind to seeing the whole picture of the Next Economy.

As thinkers and practitioners, our work is not to create the new economy, which implies the previous economy goes away and we start with a blank slate. And starting over is not our agenda. Instead, there is a legacy economy to re-think and integrate composed of 4 building blocks: grow food, make things, deliver services and create experiences. And, by the way, knowledge, creativity and sustainability will be requisite ingredients to infuse into the four economic bedrocks. The Next Economy will be a convergence of many elements.

Some principles guiding us:

We have to build an economy of convergence and no longer separate silos. The economy is no longer about developing separate sectors like IT...design...manufacturing...medical; but rather it converges these four sectors into a single product, such as a medical device. The next economy requires attending to both place and space. Places animate the local ecology and culture and space is capitalizing on the power of the internet to move ideas, collaborate with essential know-how at a distance and sell goods and services online. Concentrate locally and regionally, especially beyond state borders. Remember that some of what we consume will always come from global sources.   

Recent Resources of New Commons

• Ten Core Ideas for Growing the Economy, Locally and Regionally: the Next Economy of Place and Space by Robert Leaver
• Manifesto for Transforming Economic Development, co-authored by Robert Leaver with Scott Gibbs
• RIsurgence of the RI Economy...an online tool for shaping the RI economy. Participants are putting up ideas, debating them and then voting on the ones to implement. Anyone can participate. Three ideas made it to the implementation phase, one of which is "economic gardening," put forward by Robert Leaver of New Commons.
• Measuring the Health of the RI Economy by Robert Leaver
• Transforming Economic Development -- a transcript of the Northeast Economic Developers Association conference held in Providence in October 2010.The transcript reveals new economic development practices from practitioners Kevin Hively, Mark Waterhouse, Bruce Seifer and others. It includes a keynote talk by Chris Martenson on his "Crash Course" whihc presents the adverse conditions serving as our economic headwinds. And it includes an inside look at the transformational nature of Waterfire by its creator, Barnaby Evans who delivered a lunch talk.

New Commons Projects on the Economy

• Economic development plans for the towns of Provincetown, MA and Narragansett, RI
• 50 year vsion plan for the Island of Martha's Vineyard, which included the next economy
• Integration of the planning and economic development functions for the city of Providence, RI with economic develpment goals driving planning decisions
• Design and facilitate the 54th Northeast Economic Developers Association conference in 2010
• Facilitate the process that produced "The Cultural Plan for the Creative Sector in Providence, RI
• Facilitate and plan for "Advancing the Green Economy" for the state of RI
• Facilitate the process and produce the concept paper for the "Urban Business Investment Program"
• Serve as track co-chair for one track at NESEA's Building Energy 2013 conference in March 2013.The track is called: "Retrofitting for Resilience: Cities", with the needs of the next economy a factor in the retrofitting.

Comment on our Next Economy Blog posts

DOCUMENTS:

Conditions analysis

A Womans Nation

Character and Community

Building Community in Place_Traynor (539 kB)

Community Capacities and Community Necessities (34.5 kB)

Spaces of Democracy (31.5 kB) 

We, the People-Developing a New Democracy (1.3 MB) 

Ecology

Necessary Revolution (812.62 kB)

McDonough- Design Ecology (109.65 kB)

Paul Hawken 2009 Commencement Address (73.15 kB)

Economics

A New Deal for Local Economies (173.95 kB)

Great Transition (1.07 MB)

Place and the New Economy R. Florida (45.68 kB) 

Entrepreneurship

 Economic Gardening (484.33 kB)
 It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money (172.64 kB)

 Entrepreneurship & the Next Economy (227.28 kB)

Innovation

Art, Heart & the Future (32.52 kB) 

Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? (44 kB)

 Emerging 4th Sector (1.03 MB) 

Regionalism

 Local Knowledge (98.5 kB) 

 Mysteries of the Region-John Seely Brown (686.36 kB) 

LINKS:

Michael Shuman

Business Alliance for local Living Economies

Kaufman Foundation on Entrepreneurship

Planetizen

Richard Florida

EF Shumacher Society

Structure Lab

Business Innovation Factory

John Abrams blog

Crash Course with Chris Martenson

DEMOS

Demos is a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2000.

Artscape in Toronto
Over the last 24 years, Artscape has developed a reputation as Canada's leading practitioner in multi-tenant space development for the arts and culture sector, successfully transforming a portfolio of underutilized buildings across Toronto into dynamic community assets.

North East Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)

NESEA is the nation's leading regional membership organization promoting sustainable energy solutions.

Northeastern Economic Developers Association  (NEDA)

New Economics Institute

The New Economics Institute is working to make the new economics, one which supports people and planet, mainstream in the United States.  Our current economic system is failing in its essential purpose: to provide fulfilling and healthy lives for all people while nurturing the social and natural systems on which the economic system depends.