Notes on:
The nature of Economies
Jane Jacobs

Chapter 1: Opening Premise: The similarities between ecology and economics

p. 8:"Thinking about development has made me realize how similar economies and ecosystems are"

What is the rational for this statement?

p.9 Is there a difference between nature and human (artificial) things?

"economies are human, not natural"

"If we stop focusing on things...and shift attention to the processes that generate the things, the distinction between nature and economy blur."

p. 10 the roots of the terms ecology and economics.

p.11-12 "Working along with natural principles.....people can create economies that are more reliably prosperous than those we now have and that are also more harmonious with the rest of nature."

What are the consequences of not taking this approach?

What are the principles?

pp.16-19, Three development principles are stated: What are these? How are they related to the system's concepts of recursive nesting and webs of interconnection?

pp.32-34 What are the consequences if "portions of a population are prevented from exercising economic creativity and initiative because of discrimination attached to gender, race, caste, religion, social class, ideology or whatever"?

pp. 34- 36 What are the consequences of monopolies?

pp.36-37 Standardized goals or principles versus standardized means? What is the difference and which are to be avoided and why? How does this tie into the ideas of self-organization and context in nested systems?

On page 47, second half of the page is the "principle of expansion". The argument for this principle is on pages 45-47. The argument is based on thorough use of the energy available to the system.

What is the principle of expansion?

Why is "The interesting question... what happens in the conduit"? (p.46 first full paragraph)

What is the rational for the principle of expansion?

If instead of energy, the concept of exergy was used, how would you state the principle of expansion and the rational for it?

Is thinking about expansion in terms of exergy helpful? Why? Why not?

pp.54-63 The notion of import stretching is introduced. What is this idea?

p. 60 It is suggested "that economists would do better to abandon export-multiplier rations and turn their attention to import-stretching ratios" Why? How would such a ratio be calculated? (p.61)

p.62 bottom, p. 63 top: the energy flow principle of economic and ecosystem expansion is discussed.

What is it?

How would you state it in terms of exergy use?

How is it connected to import stretching?

What is the link between economic development, economic expansion and economic diversity?

p.65-66; An important characteristic of self-organizing physical systems is that they be self-refueling. What is meant by self-refueling? What are its two main characteristics?

The concept of self-refueling is discussed in the intervening pages.

P. 78 What is self-refueling in the context of economies?

p.82: What are the two ways that settlements have "to capture and further and different imports."?

p. 82: What are the "three master processes that govern successful economic life"?

What is the difference between expansion and development? (Hint see p.37 and p.43.)

In this chapter a number of self-organizing behaviour of systems are discussed. These are essentially the same as the ones discussed in class when we spoke about attractors, flips etc.

P.86 How do systems maintain dynamic stability? (There are four categories that she identifies. Identify them, define them, give examples of each. Can you relate these to terms (attractors, flips, resiliency etc.) used in class?)

• Category 1: p86-93
• Category 2: p.93-102
• Category 3: p.102-114
• Category 4: p.114.... Category 1: p.93-102

There are at least two other important strategies for "evading collapse", that I can think of which we discussed in class. What are they and why were they missed? (Think of the figure 8 diagram and nested hierarchies.)

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Last updated: 18\ November, 2000 jjk