The real world is messy, circular and aggressive. It's full of 'wicked problems' that are not easy to solve in the neat, theoretical ways that game theory or chess challenges suggest - take overfishing, for example.
This groundbreaking book sets out a powerful new approach, beyond economics alone and enriched with numerous illustrations, to understand the way the world really works in order to help us make better, long-term decisions. The authors call it 'real commerce', as opposed to the transactional commerce of buying and selling which is only a small part of commerce in the real sense of the world.
Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris looks at the complex way in which people, organizations and societies communicate and deal with each other every day since real commerce drives society, politics, the economy and our future. The Price of Fish takes the reader on a journey through areas of knowledge, including choice architecture, systems and evolution, that need to be understood to explain how the world really works.
Educated at Harvard, Michael Mainelli is Commerce Professor Emeritus and Fellow at Gresham College (founding home of the Royal Society and former home to Christopher Wren). He is also Visiting Professor at LSE and was responsible for creating the London Accord the world's leading research cooperative into environmental, social and governance investment. He is the co-founder of Z/Yen, the City of London's leading commercial think-tank established in 1994 to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. Over the course of his career, he has worked in economics, political science, seismology, cartography, energy information, research and development, in defence and at the highest level of accountancy.
Ian Harris is a co-founder of Z/Yen, having previously conceived and launched the award-winning joint venture Charity Share and guided the Marine Stewardship Council towards a Best Practice award for its strategic planning and governance, as well as working to solve oth