Sustainable Futures

Raphael Kaplinsky

ISBN 10: 1509547835 / ISBN 13: 9781509547838

Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd, GB, 2021

About this Item

Long before the pandemic, economies across the world were in trouble, with growth slowing across the board. This downturn coincided with growing inequality and social exclusion. Rising political dissatisfaction with ruling elites fuelled the rise of populism. Add to this the alarming environmental emergency and few can deny we live in a time of multiple sustainability crises. While this conclusion can lead to despair, in this broad-ranging book Raphael Kaplinsky, a leading development policy analyst, argues that the future is not necessarily bleak. Interrogating the causes and nature of the systemic crises we are living through, he shows how the challenges which we now face mirror previous historical epochs, in which dominant 'techno-economic' paradigms flourish, mature and run into crisis. In each case, decisive action is required to move to a more economically and socially sustainable world. In our time, we are witnessing the exhaustion of the Mass Production paradigm. How we herald and manage the transition to the next paradigm - that of Information and Communications Technologies - will determine our capacity to build a more prosperous, equitable and environmentally sustainable world. This book sets out an integrated agenda for action by multiple stakeholders to achieve this end.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781509547838

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sustainable Futures
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, GB
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509547835
• ISBN 13: 9781509547838
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 402 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Long before the pandemic, economies across the world were in trouble, with growth slowing across the board. This downturn coincided with growing inequality and social exclusion. Rising political dissatisfaction with ruling elites fuelled the rise of populism. Add to this the alarming environmental emergency and few can deny we live in a time of multiple sustainability crises.

While this conclusion can lead to despair, in this broad-ranging book Raphael Kaplinsky, a leading development policy analyst, argues that the future is not necessarily bleak. Interrogating the causes and nature of the systemic crises we are living through, he shows how the challenges which we now face mirror previous historical epochs, in which dominant ‘techno-economic’ paradigms flourish, mature and run into crisis. In each case, decisive action is required to move to a more economically and socially sustainable world. In our time, we are witnessing the exhaustion of the Mass Production paradigm. How we herald and manage the transition to the next paradigm – that of Information and Communications Technologies – will determine our capacity to build a more prosperous, equitable and environmentally sustainable world. This book sets out an integrated agenda for action by multiple stakeholders to achieve this end.

About the Author

Raphael Kaplinsky is an Honorary Professor at the Science Policy Research Unit, an Emeritus Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, and an Emeritus Professor at the Open University. His website is raphiekaplinsky.com.