Positive Linking

Product Description

According to Paul Ormerod author of the bestselling Butterfly Economics & Why Most Things Fail" the mechanistic viewpoint of conventional economics is drastically limited
- because it cannot comprehend the vital nature of networks. As our societies become ever more dynamic & intertwined network effects on every level are increasingly profound. Nudge theory is popular but only part of the answer. To grapple successfully with the current financial crisis businesses & politicians need to grasp the perils & possibilities of Positive Linking. Our social & economic worlds have been revolutionised by a massive increase in our awareness of the choices decisions behaviours & opinions of other people. For the first time in human history more than half of us live in cities & this combined with the Internet has transformed communications. Network effects
- the fact that a person can & often does decide to change his or her behaviour simply on the basis of copying what others do
- pervade the modern world. As Ormerod shows network effects make conventional approaches to policy whether in the public or corporate sectors much more likely to fail. But they open up the possibility of truly Positive Linking
- of more subtle effective & successful policies ones which harness our knowledge of network effects & how they work in practice."