By now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities. Widely available again after twenty-five years, this book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared. An illuminating and transformative book, and completely original in its view of the world, The Gift is cherished by artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic wisdom found in its pages
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"If you want a convincing account of just how deep the shift in our new axial age is and must be, look no further than this brilliant book by Charles Eisenstein, one of the deepest integrative thinkers active today."
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme - but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being. True to the gift economy, the book is offered on a "pay what you want" basis, as well as hard copy. |
The Gift has been very influential in anthropology, where there is a large field of study devoted to reciprocity and exchange. It has also influenced philosophers, artists, and political activists, including Georges Bataille, Jacques Derrida and more recently the work of David Graeber and the British theologian John Milbank. Many today see Mauss's work as a guide to how giving can promote a better way of living. The gift-giving and exchange practices Mauss described were often self-interested, but at the same time had a concern for others; the main point of the traditional gift is that it furthers both of these human aspects at the same time.
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Drawing on almost three years of experience as The Moneyless Man, Mark Boyle not only demystifies money and the system that binds us to it, he also explains how liberating, easy and enjoyable it is to live with less of it. Bursting with radical new perspectives on some of the vital, yet often unquestioned, pillars of economic theory and what it really means to be ‘sustainable’ – as well as creative and practical solutions for how we can live more with less – Boyle offers us one of the world’s most thought-provoking voices on economic and ecological ideas.
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This compelling and fundamentally liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes toward money– how we earn it, spend it, invest it, and give it away–can offer surprising insight into our lives, our values and the essence of prosperity. Through moving stories and practical principles, Lynne demonstrates how we can replace feelings of scarcity and guilt with experiences of sufficiency and freedom. Lynne shares from her own life and work, a journey illuminated by remarkable encounters with the richest and poorest people on earth, from the famous (Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama) to the anonymous but unforgettable heroes of everyday life.
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Grand Prize Winner of the 2015 Green Book Festival
In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings—all thirty dollars of it—in a phone booth. The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. By retracing the surprising path and guiding philosophy that led Suelo from an idealistic childhood through youthful disillusionment to his radical reinvention of "the good life," Sundeen raises provocative and riveting questions about the decisions we all make—by default or by design—about how we live. The Man Who Quit Money inspires us to imagine how we might live better. |
For-Giving, a Feminist Criticism of Exchange, first published in 1997 is an analysis of the values of gift giving seen as an economic mode of distribution based in maternal practice, and opposed to the self-reflecting and ego-oriented values of exchange on which the market economy is based. This book gives a woman based perspective on the gift economy as a basis for social change
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Genevieve Vaughan has published her third book regarding the revolutionary reality and transformative potential of the gift economy, a logic and matrix of practices that imply the liberation of both men and women. The new theory provides solutions to the most urgent need in neoliberal capitalist societies: to overturn the civilizational crises that capitalism and patriarchy have caused with the distortion and appropriation of the Gift. The Gift in the Heart of Language provides sobering, mind-altering and care-rational perspectives on the gift economy in all of its manifestations.
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In Homo Donans Genevieve Vaughan shows us a way to create social change, which is radical and “natural” at the same time, a way that restores centrality and visibility to “a fundamental part of our humanity that we have not seen before, or named as such”: gift giving. Homo Donans challenges us to acknowledge the fundamental importance of this paradigm and to make it the center point of a peaceful global revolution towards a fairer world, at the same time providing us with the most simple yet fascinating of answers to the eternal conflict between parasite and host.
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In The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, you will discover:
1. how to delight your audience… 2. how to expand your marketing reach… 3. and how to multiply sales of new and existing products or servies… All by letting your customers choose their price. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. And Tom Morkes will show you exactly how to do it. Better yet, all of Tom's books are offered using PWYW pricing online. |
Have you read any interesting books related to alternative pricing models or different visions of economy? Let us know!