The metabolic pattern of societies : where economists fall short / Mario Giampietro, Kozo Mayumi and Alevgül H. Sorman.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [390]-405) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1.The red pill
1.1.How real is the reality perceived and represented by economists?
1.2.The painful truth
1.3.The structure of the book and instructions for its use
2.The process of demographic change: the importance of multi-scale and multi-level analysis
2.1.Shortcomings of common per capita assessments
2.2.The intricate relation between demographic structure, social organization and economic performance
2.3.Lag-time dynamics: another look at ageing and immigration
3.Going beyond economic energy intensity and Environmental Kuznets Curves: combining extensive and intensive variables
3.1.Introduction
3.2.Multidimensional analysis requires semantic wisdom: energy intensity
3.3.Economic energy intensity across dimensions and scales
3.4.Environmental Kuznets Curves
3.5.Conclusion
4.The quality of quantitative analyses for governance: how to choose a relevant perception and a pertinent representation
Contents note continued: 4.1.Back to the basic epistemological challenge of quantitative modelling
4.2.An epistemological interpretation of the concept of complexity
4.3.The semiotic complex and semantic closure
4.4.The making of quantitative analysis: Rosen's Theory of Modelling Relation
4.5.Getting semantic closure when dealing with sustainability: the troubles on the normative side
4.6.Systemic epistemological problems on the descriptive side: the challenge of multi-scale analysis
4.7.Additional source of ignorance for the quantitative representation: the semiotic process entails handling a complex perception of time
4.8.Conclusions
5.A critical appraisal of conventional economic approaches to sustainability problems
5.1.The magic of cost benefit analysis
5.2.The Contingent Valuation Method: can we measure the "real" value of our planet?
5.3.Quantitative representations of becoming systems have an expiry date
Contents note continued: 5.4.The concept of sustainability entails a post-normal science: the systemic problems on the normative side faced by the use of economic narratives
5.5.Autistic economics: the fatal attractor of formalism nonsense
5.6.Conclusions
6.Five theoretical pillars of MuSIASEM for a new quantitative analysis of sustainability
6.1.The concept of grammar
6.2.Theoretical concepts associated with autopoiesis
6.3.The concept of the dynamic energy budget
6.4.Taming the concept of impredicativity: impredicative loop analysis
6.5.The mosaic effect
6.6.Conclusion
7.Building blocks of the MuSIASEM approach
7.1.The basic concept of metabolism
7.2.Operationalizing the concept of societal metabolism: Georgescu-Roegen's flow-fund model
7.3.MuSIASEM to analyse the metabolic pattern of societies: constraints and benchmarks on the supply side
Contents note continued: 7.4.MuSIASEM to analyse the metabolic pattern of societies: constraints and benchmarks on the demand side
7.5.Applying Sudoku procedures to the multi-purpose grammar of MuSIASEM
7.6.The MuSIASEM approach: a wrap up
8.Looking for "beyond-GDP indicators": bioeconomic pressure
8.1.Bioeconomic pressure: a "beyond-GDP" indicator
8.2.Selection of sample, materials and methods
8.3.Comparing BEP and GDP per capita in relation to economic development
8.4.Comparing BEP and GDP per capita in relation to other indicators of development
8.5.Representing the metabolic pattern in a three-dimensional space: "GDP p.c.-exo/​endo-THA/​HAPS" and "BEP-exo/​endo-THA/​HAPS"
8.6.Conclusions
9.An international comparison of the metabolic pattern of modern societies at the level of economic sectors
9.1.Checking the viability of the dynamic equilibrium in relation to the characteristics of internal compartments
Contents note continued: 9.2.Data sources, materials and methods
9.3.A comparison of changes taking place in the EU14 countries (1992-2005)
9.4.Analysing the integrated set of changes across compartments in a historic view
9.5.The problem with energy accounting when acknowledging the existence of two distinct relevant energy forms: primary energy sources and energy carriers
9.6.Conclusions
10.Other applications of MuSIASEM
10.1.The analysis of urban metabolism: a grammar useful to analyse the metabolic pattern of households
10.2.Two case studies of analysis of urban household metabolism in Barcelona
10.3.A multi-scale analysis of urban waste metabolism
10.4.The metabolic pattern of water
10.5.The metabolic pattern across multiple scales: from the local to the global picture
11.Poor narratives and granfalloons hampering the sustainability debate: can we escape Soddy's prophecy?
11.1.The demographic dimension
Contents note continued: 11.2.The implications of peak-oil are grossly underestimated
11.3.The world crusade on climate change
11.4.The dangerous formation of granfalloons
11.5.Can we escape Soddy's prophecy?
12.What went wrong and where do we go from here?
12.1.How dangerous is the fairytale of perpetual growth?
12.2.Confusing a transitional period with a steady-state situation
12.3.Reason for optimism: the Robinson Crusoe effect
12.4.On the concept of sustainability
12.5.How does the MuSIASEM approach fit in?
12.6.What should we change in sustainability science?
12.7.Rediscovering Buddhist wisdom.

This book presents the results of more than twenty years of work aimed at developing an alternative method of analysis of the economic process and related sustainability issues: it is possible to perform an integrated and comprehensive analysis of the sustainability of socio-economic systems using indicators and variables that have been so far ignored by conventional economists.