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Reports, following the UN’s 1996 ‘Human Development Report’, that the world’s poorest 1.6 billion people (one‐third of the world’s population) are growing poorer. Indicates two major lines of argument: first, that the more that resource distribution and development are left to market forces, the more resources will flow to the richer few; and, second, that it is totally impossible for Third World people to rise to the living standards typical of rich countries. Closes by investigating Ladakh — a region near Tibet — a place that is completely without modern technology, with a GNP of almost nothing which is a complex, culturally rich, and admirable society that has much to teach affluent societies about civility, humanity, community, social justice and ecological sustainability.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01443330010789278. When citing the article, please cite: Ted Trainer, (2000), “Two common mistakes about globalisation”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 20 Iss: 11/12, pp. 46 - 58.

Argues that two mistakes are evident in the critical literature on globalization. Cites the first as “globalization is a policy option that more humane or sensible leadership would have avoided”. States that it is the inevitable state to which capitalist development leads. Suggest that the other misconception is that “globalization could be acceptable if it took place in a socialist world society” and attempts to show that ecological considerations show that a sustainable world can not involve a globalized economy.

Some of the most serious problems our society faces are due to the mistaken view of development that underlies so much of our thinking and practice.

I picked up a local newspaper and read that the Town Clerk was protesting about the imminent closure of the town's railway station. Because of the socio‐economic nature of the area, he said there was a need for a mixed infrastructure. I looked across the room and thought ‘Grandma isn't going to get very far with that’.

The objective of this paper is to make a distinction between conventional and the appropriate conception of development. The relationship between the two is contradictory with regards to means and ends. This paper argued that conventional development theory was responsible for the economic disparity between the developed and developing countries. The tendency to equate development with growth has led Third World to be developed into a state within the global economy, whereby vast quantities of its land and labour now produce for export while billions of its people remain poor and their ecosystems deteriorate. Many see development as a form of plunder. The failure of conventional development has provided the foundations of an alternative approach, especially one relevant to the Third World countries. This paper concludes by outlining thirteen basic principles of alternative development theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the implications of the global ecological predicament for economic theory and practice.

Many current analyses of ecological, resource, economic, greenhouse, energy, etc. problems acknowledge the urgent need for significant changes. However, almost all assume that it will be possible to reform a society based on principles such as economic growth, affluent living standards, market systems, the profit motive and competitive, individualistic acquisitiveness, into a society that is sustainable and just. The first section of this paper sketches the grounds for concluding that this view is clearly mistaken. It shows that consumer‐capitalist society cannot be fixed, i.e. that no amount of reforms leaving its core principles intact can make it into a society that is sustainable and just. The second section derives from this analysis some of the basic principles, which a satisfactory society must, therefore, have. Section 3 deals with the radical implications of these discussions for economic theory and practice.

The paper shows that when the nature and magnitude of the global ecological situation is understood it is evident that a consumer‐capitalist society cannot be made sustainable or just, and that the irremediable faults are largely due to conventional economic theory and practice.

The main sociological implication is that the coming era of scarcity will require radical restructuring of the economy and of economic theory.

Previous critical economic literature has given little attention to the implications of the limits to growth literature focused on in this discussion.

It is often stated by trainers that projects are a means to an end, a learning vehicle. This only holds true, however, where the project is primarily or solely for learning. Where the project and project groups are part of a strategy for loosening up the structure of an organisation, generating structural flex, and moving towards a situation of greater involvement and participation at all levels in an organisation, then the project group is a key element in a change strategy.

The discussion of climate change and energy problems is generally based on the assumption that technical solutions are possible and that the task is essentially to determine the most effective ways. This view relies heavily on the expectation that renewable energy sources can be substituted for fossil fuels. The purpose of this paper is to improve on an earlier attempt to estimate the investment cost that would be involved in deriving total world energy supply from renewable sources.

This discussion improves on an earlier attempt to estimate the investment cost that would be involved in deriving total world energy supply from renewable sources. It takes common assumptions re future energy demand and estimates of future output and capital costs of major renewable energy sources and explores four strategies for supplying global energy demand in 2050.

This paper finds that the greenhouse and energy problems cannot be solved by action on the supply side, i.e. by technical developments which promise to provide quantities taken for granted in energy‐intensive societies. This general “limits to growth” perspective is that these and the other major global problems can only be solved by action on the demand side, i.e. by moving to ways, values, institutions and systems which greatly reduce the need for materials, energy and ecological resources.

Confidence in the conclusions is limited mainly by the lack of evidence at this point in time on the actual difficulties set by the problem of integrating the intermittent sources, and the resulting need for redundant plant.

Each of the four strategies explored requires large amounts of redundant plant to be able to cope with the intermittency problem. Each leads to total system capital costs which are well beyond affordable levels.

The findings add to the general “limits to growth” case that solutions to the global energy and other sustainability problems cannot be achieved within consumer‐capitalist society but must be sought via dramatic reductions in production, consumption and GDP. This would require radical system change from the commitment to growth, market systems and affluent lifestyles, to what is described as The Simpler Way.

It does not seem that this approach has previously been taken to the specific issue of the potential and limits of renewable energy. Little or no attention has been given to the thesis that global sustainability and justice require transition to some kind of Simpler Way.

In Saudi Arabia, technical education is managed by Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. However, there is no independent accrediting body to accredit the technical institutes and assure its quality, which causes the lack of unified quality assurance standards and manageable quality improvement processes. The purpose of this paper is to propose self-evaluation standards to help the technical institutes to evaluate their performance.

The author has used a brainstorming technique of local practitioners in quality assurance. Such technique was performed by adopting DACUM that stands for “Developing A CurriculUM”. The author has used a heuristic educational and training process as the foundation of the standards and processes development, namely; curriculum, environment, training managements, and instructors. A team has been established that has been trained locally and abroad on the quality assurance standards and processes. The team studied several quality frameworks of the different countries to come up with guidelines for quality self-evaluation and standards.

The author has found that such an approach is a very effective tool for improving the institutes' performance and gives them the flexibility to decide about their missions. Most of institutes' staff is reluctant to participate in the self-evaluation process because of the fear it may reveal their weaknesses, but with encouragement and motivation especially from the top management they tend to participate in such a process. Self-evaluation helps the educational institutes to be benchmarked with other international institutions, in which good practices may be adopted by the institutes' managements to achieve their vision.

The proposed approach can help the technical education institutes to manage their quality system. In addition, the implementation of such an approach might be the starting point to develop a quality system framework for the technical education in Saudi Arabia. However, further investigation is needed to measure whether applying such standards may help the technical education institutes to meet the required quality standards to attain an accreditation from the international quality agencies.

The proposed guidelines for quality standards and processes is a contribution in the accreditation and quality assurance processes for many public and private institutions in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it is an important step to standardize the quality processes.