A World in Transition

by Aerts, Diederik; Broekaert, Jan; Weyns, Willy

• ISBN13: 9780792357612
• ISBN10: 0792357612
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

A World in Transition, Humankind and Nature is appropriately entitled after its aim for an intrinsic property of reality: change. Of major concern, in this era of transformation, is the extensive and profound interaction of humankind with nature. The global-scale social and technological project of humankind definitely involves a myriad of changes of the ecosphere. This book develops, from the call for an interdisciplinary synthesis and respect of plurality, acknowledging the evolving scientific truth, to the need for an integrated but inevitably provisional worldview. Contributors from different parts of the world focus on four modes of change: (i) Social change and the individual condition, (ii) Complex evolution and fundamental emergent transformations, (iii) Ecological transformation and responsibility inquiries, (iv) The economic-ecological and socio-technical equilibria. Primarily concerned with the deep transformations of humankind and of the relationship between humans and nature, it is addressed to a broad and thinking public that wants to be kept informed.

Table of Contents

General Introduction	vii
Diederik Aerts
Editorial Introduction: A World in Transition; Humankind and Nature	xv
Jan Broekaert
Willy Weyns
Social Change and the Individual Condition
A Critique of the Competitiveness Imperative and Current Globalisation	1	(18)
Riccardo Petrella
Barriers of Human Evolution	19	(14)
Borisz Szanto
Altered States of Society: A Tentative Approach	33	(10)
Dmitri Spivak
Social Space: From Freedom to Freedom of Movement	43	(40)
Diederik Aerts
Hunger Strikes: The Dramaturgy of Starvation Politics	83	(8)
Kyra Marie Landzelius
Complex Evolution and Fundamental Emergent Transformations
Supra-Human Institutions and the Human Condition	91	(14)
Fenton F. Robb
Stability, Turbulence, Chaos?: Systems Analogies and Metaphors, and Change in Contemporary World Politics	105	(16)
Czeslaw Mesjasz
Confronting Health Transition Complexity	121	(12)
Marilia Bernardes Marques
Non-Natural Cultural Universals Exist	133	(24)
Philip L. Peterson
Communication: The Key to Understanding the Very Nature of 'Life', 'Death' and the Force Driving Evolution	157	(18)
Arnold De Loof
Ecological Transformation and Responsibility Inquiries
Science and Environmental Law. The Perspectives of Truth-Pluralism	175	(22)
Serge Gutwirth
Strength and Weakness (SWOT) Analysis of Humankind to Overcome the Global Ecological Challenges	197	(8)
Willy Weyns
``And You, My Mountain, Will You Never Walk Towards Me?''	205	(12)
Jan Fennema
Humankind and Natura	217	(8)
Peng Fu-Yang
Rural Economic-Ecological and Socio-Technical Equilibria
Rural Development Knowledge: Indigenous, Necessary, Appropriate	225	(18)
Francis D. O'Reilly
The Predicament of Ecological-Economic Valuation and the Need for Linkage through an Institutional Framework	243	(14)
H. Thomas R. Mark
The Post-Industrial Society: What Future Are We Preparing?	257	(14)
Riccardo Petrella
Scarcity versus Fertility. Two Ways of Thinking about Economy	271	(12)
Janina Rosicka
Index	283