Lars Östman towards a general theory of financial control

Resource systems 

 

For the entire horizontal process, output must be viewed in relation to sacrifice and to input 

backwards in the chains, reaching as far back as natural resources and working condition at 

various stages. Usually, forward-driving forces in the horizontal line form a basic logic of 

control procedures. Control systems during the first years of the 21

st

 century focused on 

separate interests and especially supported certain near functions forwards. This type of 

systems is not ideal for managing problems that basically concern everybody and have long-

term character, such as managing natural resources. Many variables have to be handled 

simultaneously. Visible effects appear by and by, but after a time very tangibly; some 

resources that are not renewable are consumed gradually.

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 States and ongoing processes will 

remain unknown in essential respects. Fundamentally, there is no alternative. The aim of 

control is not products that are traded to satisfy human needs and desires but rather physical 

and biological states and processes that go on without any intentional meaning. Effects hurt 

the physical and biological environment, which ultimately is the foundation for everybody. 

Thus, this is not a concern for certain traditionally defined groups, even if various such 

groups may be affected to varying degrees. 

                                                            

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  One extraordinarily early book about environmental issues was published in 1864, Man and nature, by 

George P. Marsh. The very existence of this book with its observations illustrates much of the long-range 

character of this issue.  

 

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