New Markets, New Commons, New Ethics: A Guest Essay

One major development in the upsurge of accounting interest in environmental issues has been a quantum leap in the recognition of the extent of the crucial role that economics plays in constituting accounting thought and practice. “Conventional” economics and its contribution to the environmental debate and radical critiques of economics′ environmental failures have become familiar territory. However, a further, most important, development in accounting has largely gone unnoticed, the development of “New Economics”. This offers a paradigm shift from the mechanical and inorganic focus of early industrialism to the post‐industrial biological and information‐oriented channels, through which it is hoped that a “win‐win” solution will resolve the current conflict between society and the powers that be.