From Beyond GDP to Life-Coherent Progress

Re-Grounding Progress, Wealth, Peace, Efficiency, and Governance in LifeBy Dr Bichara Sahely
Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices
Length6h 31m

About this audiobook

From Beyond GDP to Life-Coherent Progress argues that the global movement to complement GDP with broader measures of well-being, equity, sustainability, and resilience is necessary but incomplete. The United Nations Beyond GDP agenda rightly recognizes that economic output cannot serve as the master measure of progress. Yet a wider dashboard can still become performative if it measures harm without transforming the relations that produce harm. This white paper proposes a life-coherent deepening of the Beyond GDP agenda. Drawing on the UN Beyond GDP framework, John McMurtry’s life-value onto-axiology, Johan Galtung’s positive peace, and Humberto Maturana’s relational biology, it reframes progress as the expansion of life-capacity: the real capacity of persons, communities, ecosystems, and future generations to live, heal, participate, repair, and flourish.

Audiobook details

GenreBusiness and Economics
Length6 hrs 31 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateMay 13, 2026
LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Chapter 1
2Abstract
3Executive Summary
4Part I — The Historical Opening: Why GDP Is No Longer Enough
51.1 The contribution of this paper
Mostrar todos os capítulos
61.2 The guiding question
71.3 The structure of the argument
82.1 Foundational principles: peace, human rights, and respect for the planet
92.2 Current well-being: the widening of lived experience
102.3 Equity and inclusion: from averages to unequal burdens
112.4 Sustainability and resilience: capital, future well-being, and the problem of substitution
122.5 The strength of the dashboard approach
132.6 The limitation of dashboard thinking
14Part III — The Missing Depth: From Measurement to Life- Value
153.1 The hidden ontology of progress
163.3 Life-capacity as the real measure of progress
173.4 Universal human life necessities
183.5 Why this deepens Beyond GDP
19Part IV — Life Capital: Deepening the Five-Capitals Framework
204.2 The danger of capital neutrality
214.3 McMurtry’s life capital
224.4 True capital and life-incoherent capital
234.6 Human capital through the life-capital test
244.7 Social capital through the life-capital test
254.8 Institutional capital through the life-capital test
264.9 Natural capital, life-ground, and non-substitutability
274.10 The life-capital audit
28Part V — Life-Coherent Efficiency: From Output Productivity to Life-Good Provisioning
295.1 The conventional meaning of efficiency
305.2 False efficiency and burden displacement
31A life-coherent efficiency test therefore asks:
325.3 Three domains of life-coherent efficiency
335.4 Ecological efficiency
345.5 Physical input-output efficiency
355.6 Human development efficiency
366.3 Structural violence as life-capacity reduction
376.4 Cultural violence and the legitimation of harm
386.6 Toward life-coherent peace indicators
39Part VII — Relational Biology and the Worlds Measurement Brings Forth
407.3 The emotional ground of rational systems
417.4 Organism–niche relations
427.5 Legitimate coexistence
43Legitimate coexistence therefore asks:
447.7 The relational upgrade to Beyond GDP
45Part VIII — The Life-Coherent Framework for Progress
468.1 The life-master question
478.3 From health systems to life systems
488.4 Exposure, repair, and margins
498.5 Exposure burden
508.6 Repair capacity
Never Split the DifferenceChris Voss, Tahl Raz8h 7m4.4 (277.7K)$26 · $0.00
The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed.Benjamin Graham17h 48m4.3 (191.5K)$40 · $0.00
The Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen Horowitz7h 57m4.2 (134.3K)$26 · $0.00
Boundaries for LeadersHenry Cloud7h 36m4.3 (3.6K)$26 · $0.00
The Secret Door to SuccessFlorence Scovel Shinn2h 25m4.5 (2.1K)$1.20 · $0.00
This Is Going to HurtAdam Kay5h 47m4.4 (444.7K)$24 · $0.00
Big TrustShadé Zahrai, Fayçal Sekkouah8h 36m4.6 (406)$26 · $0.00
The Intelligent Investor Third EditionBenjamin Graham, Jason Zweig20h4.4 (156.6K)$46 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
The Antiracist Business BookTrudi Lebrón6h 10m4.6 (275)$17 · $0.00
The FormulaJoshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg10h 41m4.4 (6.9K)$29 · $0.00
Let Them LeadJohn U. Bacon7h 10m4.5 (1.4K)$24 · $0.00
Secrets of the Millionaire MindT. Harv Eker5h 11m4.4 (301.4K)$24 · $0.00
The Person You Mean to BeDolly Chugh9h 6m4.4 (7.2K)$29 · $0.00
BoundlessNick Kostov, Sean McLain9h 17m4.5 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
Everyday DharmaSuneel Gupta5h 2m4.5 (761)$20 · $0.00
Let's Talk Mutual FundsMonika Halan7h 5m4.4 (2.4K)$16 · $0.00
Secret PowerDwight Lyman Moody3h 7m4.4 (1.4K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Law of Success in Sixteen LessonsNapoleon Hill2h 39m4.4 (17.2K)$2 · $0.00
Barbarians at the GateBryan Burrough, John Helyar3h 3m4.4 (52.7K)$18 · $0.00

You may also like

Not Too Latevarious authors6h 38m4.1 (1.4K)$17
The BondWayne Pacelle12h 39m4.1 (963)$33 · $0.00
The Shark’s PaintbrushJay Harman11h 50m4.1 (459)$20
Super ImmunityJoel Fuhrman5h 59m4.2 (5.1K)$24 · $0.00
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Jaime Green12h 27m4.0 (623)$29 · $0.00
How To EatMark Bittman, David Katz7h 13m3.8 (4.1K)$24 · $0.00
Go GentlyBonnie Wright5h 35m4.2 (1.7K)$24 · $0.00
BiomimicryJanine M. Benyus14h 54m4.1 (3.6K)$33 · $0.00
Animal, Vegetable, JunkMark Bittman12h 53m4.0 (5.3K)$33 · $0.00
The Gut-Immune ConnectionEmeran Mayer6h 32m4.1 (754)$24 · $0.00
HarmonyCharles HRH The Prince of Wales11h 22m4.2 (475)$29 · $0.00
Silent EarthDave Goulson9h 54m4.4 (3.8K)$29 · $0.00
Man and Nature; Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human ActionGeorge P. Marsh23h 35m4.1 (323)$1 · $0.00
Protection of the oceansRicardo Garay2m$6 · $0.00
The Fifth SeasonRuby M. Harris11h 12m$4.10 · $0.00
The Fascinating World of InsectsKidsChoice46m5.0 (1)$12 · $0.00
Easy Organic GardeningLee A. Saunders1h 32m$2.30
Carbon FarmingIvy N. Crowhurst2h 25m$2.30 · $0.00
The American Reformed Cattle DoctorGeorge H. Dadd12h 47m$2 · $0.00
Saving Our HomeElijah V. Reynolds9h 13m$4.10 · $0.00