Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

History has entered the planetary phase of civilization. The world is growing more connected, binding people and the biosphere more tightly into one global system with one destiny. In this context the global economy has grown rapidly, yet poverty persists, inequality increases, and global environmental degradation deepens.

Great Transition stands in contrast to other global visions. Market Forces is a scenario of rapid economic globalization, driven by the Washington Consensus agenda of free trade and privatization. It advertises the economic dynamism of corporate-led globalization, while ignoring its tendency to concentrate power, increase inequality, and degrade the global commons.

The critics of the Market Forces vision span a broad ideological spectrum, but sound a common warning - social polarization, economic instability, and environmental degradation could interact and spiral out of control. Inadvertently, a general global crisis could lead to the authoritarian response of a Fortress World scenario -- a dark vision of global apartheid.

To counter such risk, the Policy Reform scenario would modify Market Forces patterns with a comprehensive government-led program. Yet, incremental adjustments to highly unsustainable trends are simply insufficient. The reform vision requires an unparalleled level of political will and social consensus that are currently absent.

Many who reject market-driven globalization, yet find the reform agenda deficient, have been drawn to localist alternatives. Eco-Communalism is a scenario rooted in a small-is-beautiful ethic, which emphasizes highly decentralized political, economic, and cultural arrangements

The Great Transition paradigm endorses many of the ideals of Eco-communalism. It seeks a world where the quality of human knowledge, creativity and self-realization, not the quantity of goods and services, signals development. But rather than reject globalization, it validates global solidarity, cultural cross-fertilization, economic interdependence, and cooperative efforts to build a harmonious and sustainable global society.

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