I grew up in a middle-class family in Palo Alto, California, during the years when the community transformed from a quiet college town to a hub of the technology sector’s Silicon Valley. While multiple family members and friends were part of this boom, I found myself questioning what all this “progress” meant and for whom. These questions led me across Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. I collaborated with grassroots efforts in which community-led groups successfully stopped extractive “development” projects and instead built alternative pathways to economic flourishing.
In my (continued) learning about what it takes to change our economic systems and what else is possible, these books have been important reads for me.
Even as someone who thinks deeply about (reimagining) the economy, I hadn’t fully conceptualized how different it could be – and how different it in fact has been, and continues to be for many people around the world when it is rooted in principles of abundance, care, and the sacred.
And Robin manages to make the book’s message and impact so profound, while still weaving her magic of writing that is accessible, deeply human, and beautiful.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have…
This is a haunting and eye opening book that forever changed how I view business-as-usual management and accounting practices – and where these seemingly mundane and harmless ways of operating came from.
I love the way that Caitlin writes with both such precision and bravery – she is not afraid to boldly reveal ugly histories and truths about the origins of modern-day business as usual, while also being careful to not overstate or generalize.
She is one of my hero(ines) for how we can wield the tools of research and writing in support of needed change and awakening.
"Slavery in the United States was a business. A morally reprehensible and very profitable business...Rosenthal argues that slaveholders in the American South and Caribbean were using advanced management and accounting techniques long before their northern counterparts. Techniques that are still used by businesses today." Marketplace
A Politico Great Weekend Read
Accounting for Slavery is a unique contribution to the decades-long effort to understand New World slavery's complex relationship with capitalism. Through careful analysis of plantation records, Caitlin Rosenthal explores the development of quantitative management practices on West Indian and Southern plantations. She shows how planter-capitalists built sophisticated organizational structures and…
Leave it to Anand to throw down and tell it like it is!
I found this book SO refreshing, given my work in philanthropy and fundraising, and how much people operating in this world can fall into making excuses for extremely bad (and ridiculous) behavior.
I read this as part of a book club with several colleagues and friends from work (all of whom worked in or adjacent to philanthropy), and our discussions about each chapter ended up feeling like therapy sessions.
I super appreciated Anand’s singular ability to call things out for what they are, and I feel like the book made a lasting impact on me in terms of emboldening and sharpening my analysis of how we can and should reimagine how we fund.
'Superb, hugely enjoyable ... a spirited examination of the hubris and hypocrisy of the super-rich who claim they are helping the world' Aditya Chakrabortty, Guardian
What explains the spreading backlash against the global elite? In this revelatory investigation, Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, showing how the elite follow a 'win-win' logic, fighting for equality and justice any way they can - except ways that threaten their position at the top.
But why should our gravest problems be solved by consultancies, technology companies and corporate-sponsored charities instead of public institutions…
This book is the first time I thought about the concept of capital bias – how, in our society, we are operating with attitudes and institutions that favor those with money – and it was one of those times where once I saw something, I then couldn’t unsee it.
This idea may sound very basic or obvious, but Marjorie unpacks the concept with nuance that blew my mind and made me realize unexamined ways that I operate with this bias, too. I also deeply appreciate that Marjorie doesn’t stop at calling out the problems; she then points to what else is possible and already happening, towards realities of shared prosperity and power.
This read was a really important one for me in my journey toward work focused on reimagining how we fund, including how we invest.
I am thankful for the ways this book made me more clear and brave in my work.
A powerful analysis of how the bias towards wealth that is woven into the very fabric of American capitalism is damaging people, the economy, and the planet, and what the foundations of a new economy could be.
This bold manifesto exposes seven myths underlying wealth supremacy, the bias that institutionalizes infinite extraction of wealth by and for the wealthy, and is the hidden force behind economic injustice, the climate crisis, and so many other problems of our day:
The Myth of Maximizing: No amount of wealth is ever enough.
The Myth of Fiduciary Duty: Corporate managers' most sacred duty is…
I love the tremendous heart and deep knowledge with which this book is written, and the rigor it shows us about the concept of solidarity economy.
I find that, often in my work with groups in the U.S., folks often have a limited knowledge about the concept of solidarity economy, its origins in Latin America, and the depth of what this concept holds. This book is a fantastic primer of the concept.
And more than that, it is a balm. I open this book often; I find it grounding, calming even, and it reminds me that our work is truly part of a long arc – a centuries-long arc – and that we can bolster our spirits and our thinking with the dreams of concepts of fellow change makers in Latin America and beyond who have come before us.
This book seeks to generate debate and deepen our reflections about collectivity and understanding about political solidarity economy. Political Solidarity Economy is an alternative economy that enables a production process which transforms unfair relationships and defends territories from the interests of transnational corporations.
Based on extensive research with organizations and companies boldly breaking out of business as usual, Beloved Economies offers readers an imagination-expanding vision of what work could be. Authors Rimington and Cea explore possibilities for how we work, learning with more than sixty people from a wide array of enterprises. What these groups have in common is that they are generating forms of success that audaciously prioritize well-being, meaning, connection, and resilience—alongside conventional metrics like quality and financial success.
Beloved Economies offers readers seven specific practices as a springboard for changing how we work. As the book reveals, it’s not only what we do, but how we do it that can be a powerful lever to move us into economies that all of us can love.
