This summer Fromgirltogirl.com created a book club to encourage continuous learning within the community.  For September, our book of the month is ‘A Manifesto for Social Progress Ideas for a Better Society’ by Marc Fleurbaey with contributions from Oliver Bouin, Marie-Laure Salles-Djelic, Ravi Kanbur, Helga Nowotny and Elisa Reis. We picked up this book for many reasons: Our love for International Relations, Social Good, Politics, and our overall interests in improving global human rights and civil rights. Some believe that creating a better society is unachievable while others believe it is possible if we are dedicated to the cause. 

We use to fit in the utopia category that world peace is possible. But we now understand a better society comes in the form of improving systems and encouraging positive mindsets to make changes to bring about a better society. It doesn’t happen overnight but it can happen over generations. We can put in the work now to make that change. But it won’t be perfect. The goal is to improve quality of life for as many people as we possible can.

What we love about this book on a manifesto for social progress is that the authors do not sugar-coat the complexity of the world we live within. Instead, they take a well balanced approach that we cannot fully abandon old ideas nor do we need to take on completely new causes to make for a better society. The authors’ approach is to involve new combinations of market mechanisms and other forms of social interactions and regulations to better society. They believe the new social progress should begin with our generation.

Looking back on our college years in International Affairs, we wish more books on balanced ideology, such as this manifesto, were available. It’s an excellent educational resource because it presents the facts, the problems at hand, and possible solutions if we make efforts to do x, y, and z.

Some call to actions we gathered from this book are the following:

• The need for legal implementation of #SocialGood. 
  
• The importance of educating young #girls about industries monopolized by boys and building up their skills to compete within these industries.
• Who can change society for the better? Supporters of social good movements, civil society organizations, most importantly corporate and political stakeholders.

But what really sparked my interests throughout this reading was this:

Letting employees elect their own leaders and make managers accountable to people they manage. If leaders can’t earn respect and loyalty, they shouldn’t be leading a team. Would love corporate America to try it.

Get your copy of ‘A Manifesto for Social Progress Ideas for a Better Society’ by Marc Fleurbaey. Let us know your thoughts and follow our reddit thread to leave a comment about your social progress ideas for a better society.