Understanding Business Environments

Michael Lucas, the Open University

• INTRODUCTION: THE CONCEPT OF THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 1 Globalisation 2 Identifying environmental issues 3 The traditions of thought in the study of economy and society SECTION 1: THE ECONOMY 4 Conservative governments and the economy, 1979–97 5 Finance unbound 6 The management of the UK economy 7 A marxist reading of the UK economy and its management 8 Living without borders 9 Global cooperation or rival trade blocs? SECTION 2: SOCIETY 10 The structure of society 11 Social trends since World War II 12 Changing social divisions: class gender and race 13 Why inequality doesn’t work 14 A new international division of labour? 15 Culture and management SECTION 3: THE STATE 16 An overview of the English legal system 17 Power and the state 18 Putting the advanced capitalist state in perspective 19 Government–business relations in Japan and Korea 20 Business routes of influence in Brussels: exploring the choice of direct representation 21 Globalization and the advanced capitalist state SECTION 4: THE SYSTEM? TECHNOLOGY, ECOLOGY AND GLOBALISATION 22 Creating the corporate future 23 Daniel Bell and the information society 24 Global information infrastructure: eliminating the distance barrier 25 Globalization, new production concepts and income distribution 26 A road map for natural capitalism 27 Reflections on the politics linking science, environment and innovation