Download or read book A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures written by Thomas R. Flanagan and published by . This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This workbook supports scholarly role playing in the arena of global diplomacy and human system planning. Audiences include students, faith-based groups, and community members who like to grapple with the big picture -- arguably the biggest picture -- of our times: global sustainability. The modular 4 or 5 week course can be extended as different groups might choose. Audiences will collaborate with others by authentically engaging the world's complexity through participatory democracy. This experiential learning opportunity has the power to change lives, and the promise to save the planet. The exploration begins with the challenges faced by the founders of the Club of Rome circa 1970. The founding prospectus identified the problematique underlying global sustainability as a set of 49 continuous critical problems. These interacting and entangled problems create what more recently has been called a wicked mess. They are not solvable in isolation because fixing one of them will likely further complicate others. Considering the full set of problems causes individuals to feel overwhelmed. For that reason, the structured dialogic design divides the challenge of understanding the problem up among members of the group, and then has them interact as a community of "experts" in their assigned problem areas. In a step wise process, this group of experts sequentially clarifies meanings, explores similarities among ideas, and identifies relationships between ideas. In this fashion, the group avoids becoming trapped in a reductionist approach to problem solving and enters into a communal understanding of the complex situation. Readers who wish to participate in an exploration of the problematique underlying global sustainability are invited to join a group through the Institute for 21st Century Agoras. In addition to the book itself, readers will be provided access to a software tool for tracking meanings that are uncovered, prompting decisions during deliberation, and then also presenting outcomes of those decisions as an easily read "tree." A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures builds capacities for understanding and resolving highly complex problems in collaboration. It is a "self help" workbook for communities sensing urgency for starting today to build their futures. The authors, Drs. Tom Flanagan and Ken Bausch, are systems scientists who each have over 20 years of experience in complex systems work. The inspiration for the workbook comes from their collaborative online teaching with Janet McIntyre and her students at Flinders University in Australia.
Download or read book Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures written by Majia Nadesan and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2022-09-29 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures explores how our dominant carbon and nuclear energy assemblages shape conceptions of participation, risk, and in/securities, and how they might be reengineered to deliver justice and democratic participation in transitioning energy systems. Chapters assess the economies, geographies and politics of current and future energy landscapes, exposing how dominant assemblages (composed of technologies, strategies, knowledge and authorities) change our understanding of security and risk, and how they these shared understandings are often enacted uncritically in policy. Contributors address integral relationships across the production and government of material and human energies and the opportunities for sustainable and democratic governance. In addition, the book explores how interest groups advance idealized energy futures and energy imaginaries. The work delves into the role that states, market organizations and civil society play in envisioned energy change. It assesses how risks and security are formulated in relation to economics, politics, ecology, and human health. It concludes by integrating the relationships between alternative energies and governance strategies, including issues of centralization and decentralization, suggesting approaches to engineer democracy into decision-making about energy assemblages. - Explores descriptive and normative relationships between energy and democracy - Reviews how changing energy demand and governance threaten democracies and democratic institutions - Identifies what participative energy transformations look like when paired with energy security - Reviews what happens to social, economic and political infrastructures in the process of achieving sustainable and democratic transitions
Download or read book Revaluing Work ers written by Tobias Schulze-Cleven and published by Labor and Employment Research Association. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we build a future of work that meets pressing challenges and delivers for workers? Contemporary societies are beset by interrelated ecological, political, and economic crises, from climate change to democratic erosion and economic instability. Uncertainty abounds about the sustainability of democratic capitalism. Yet mainstream debates on the evolution of work tend to remain narrowly circumscribed, exhibiting both technological and market determinism. This volume presents a labor studies perspective on the future of work, arguing that revaluing work--the efforts and contributions of workers--is crucial to realizing the promises of democracy and improving sustainability. It emphasizes that collective political action, and the collective agency of workers in particular, is central to driving this agenda forward. Moreover, it maintains that reproductive work--labor efforts from care to education that sustain the reproduction of society--can function as a crucible of innovation for the valuation and governance of work more broadly. Contributors: Robert Bruno, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; J. Mijin Cha, Occidental College; Dorothy Sue Cobble, Rutgers University; Sheri Davis-Faulkner, Rutgers University; Victor G. Devinatz, Illinois State University; Alysa Hannon, Rutgers University; William A. Herbert, Hunter College; David C. Jacobs, American University; John McCarthy, Cornell University; Joseph A. McMartin, Georgetown University; Heather A. McKay, Rutgers University; Michael Merrill, Hudson County Central Labor Council; Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Rutgers University; Saul A. Rubinstein, Rutgers University; Erica Smiley, Jobs With Justice; Marilyn Sneiderman, Rutgers University; Joseph van der Naald, City University of New York; Michell Van Noy, Rutgers University; Naomi R Williams, Rutgers University; Joel S. Yudken, High Road Strategies LLC; Elaine Zundl, Harvard Kennedy School
Download or read book Sustainable and Democratic Education written by Sarah Chave and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-20 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world struggling with environmental and social problems resistant to current solutions, education needs to explore ways to ‘enlarge the space of the possible’ rather than only ‘replicate the existing possible’. To respond to this challenge, this book troubles dominant Western philosophical conceptions which continue to have wide-ranging influence in education worldwide and which limit more sustainable ways to be in the world together. It argues for the importance of opening spaces in and through which unique subjects can emerge, bringing potential for new ways of being and as yet unimagined futures. The book makes a valuable contribution to international growing interest in Arendtian thinking, complexity and emergence, feminist thinking, the emerging field of anticipation studies, the posthuman and engagement with Indigenous scholarship and practices in ways which attempt to be non-appropriating. Sustainability continues to be a vital theme in education, and the book responds to a desire to encourage education which invites more sustainable processes and ways of being in addition to education which limits itself to teaching about, or for, sustainability. Sustainable and Democratic Education will be of great interest to academics and practitioners working with sustainability, Indigenous scholarship, complexity theory and the posthuman and what these ideas can mean in and for education.
Download or read book Sustainable Futures written by Raphael Kaplinsky and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sustainability written by Maurie J. Cohen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability is one of the buzzwords of our times and a key imperative for economic growth, technological development, social equity, and environmental quality. But what does it really mean and how is it being implemented around the world? In this clear-eyed book, Maurie Cohen introduces students to the concept of sustainability, tracing its history and application from local land-use practices, construction techniques and reorientation of business models to national and global institutions seeking to foster sustainable practices. Examining sustainable development in scientific, technological, social and political terms, he shows that it remains an elusive concept and evidence of its unambiguous achievements can be difficult to ascertain. Moreover, developed and developing countries have formulated divergent agendas to engage the notion of sustainability, further complicating its application and progress across the world. Innovative and readily accessible to students from a range of disciplines, this primer takes us on a journey to show that sustainability is as much about unchartered waters as it is about formulating answers to urgent global issues.
Download or read book Governance Democracy and Sustainable Development written by James Meadowcroft and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÔThe editors of this volume bring together an impressive cast of scholars on the critical relationship of democracy and governance in sustainable development. It offers an outstanding and timely contribution to the literatures in sustainability, political science, and comparative environmental politics.Õ Ð Daniel J. Fiorino, American University, US ÔThis very timely and important collection draws together some of the worldÕs leading thinkers on environment and development to debate one of the most important issues of our time: sustainable development. They very usefully remind us all that in order to be politically sustainable, the sustainability transition will have to find a way to maximise policy synergies in a democratically legitimate manner.Õ Ð Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK This insightful book deals with governance of the environment and sustainable development. The contributors explore the difficulties developed countries are experiencing in coming to terms with environmental limits and the resultant challenges to the democratic polity. They engage with different dimensions of the governance challenge including norms, public attitudes, citizen engagement, political conflict, policy design, and implementation, with a range of environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity/nature protection, and water management). The book concludes with an essay by William Lafferty that explores the flawed character of the contemporary democratic polity and offers his reflections on possible pathways to reform. This book will interest researchers, academics, and graduate students in environmental politics and public policy. It is ideal for use as supplementary reading in a wide range of university courses, while NGOS and policymakers will also find it of considerable value.
Download or read book Sustaining Liberal Democracy written by M. Wissenburg and published by Springer. This book was released on 2001-04-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assuming that liberalism, liberal democracy and the free market are here to stay, this book asks how sustainability can be interpreted in ways that respect liberal democratic values and institutions. Among the problems addressed are the compatibility of liberal proceduralism with substansive 'green' ideals, the existence and potential of eco-friendly principles and ideas in classical liberal political theory, the role of rights and duties and of democracy and deliberation, and the 'greening' potential of modern environmental-focused practices in liberal democracies.
Download or read book Governance for a Sustainable Future written by Yukio Adachi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-09-23 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the expression “responsibility to future generations” is firmly established in public and political vocabulary, its operational meaning and practice are inadequately understood and yet to be systematically evaluated. Moreover, the term has not been successfully translated into viable ethical and theoretical concepts that can guide public policies and actions. How can the modes of governance and established policy priorities become compatible with the well-being of future generations? The primary objective of this book is to identify the conditions of and obstacles to governance for a sustainable future, or future-regarding governance. Governance concerns steering a society over extended periods of time, not responding to particular policy issues. The ideas and strategies proposed by contributors in this book to establish future-regarding governance are based on the theoretical and empirical analyses of the major long-term problems facing advanced democracies in general, and Japan in particular. Japan is an interesting case indeed. Relatively poor climate policy, rapidly decreasing birth rate, aging population, extensive public debt, prolonged economic recession, healthcare and pension systems that urgently require redesigning, hollowing-out of industries and subsequent loss of jobs, deteriorating infrastructures, increasing nuclear waste, and intensifying social polarization have caused a decline in people’s trust in the government and democratic processes. Currently, Japanese citizens are widely circulating their doubts about the social system’s sustainability. This book comprises two parts. In Part I, authors from various disciplinary backgrounds examine the idea of governance for a sustainable future from theoretical perspectives. This part discusses issues associated with future-regarding governance that are wicked in nature, such as the philosophical/ethical foundation on which to base the idea of governance for a sustainable future, major impediments to the development of future-regarding governance, and the modes of thinking and action required by leaders and citizens to realize such governance. Chapters in Part II largely focus on the state of long-term governance in Japan. This part uses empirical and in-depth analyses with cross-sectoral and cross-national policy perspectives to identify the state of future-regarding governance in various policy fields and major sectors or organizations mainly in Japan, while also examining strategies and measures to improve their performance. From this perspective, Western democracies and weak democratic regimes elsewhere will be provided with valuable lessons to avoid fatal policy mistakes, thereby improving future-oriented governance worldwide. By combining theoretical discussions on far-reaching issues and empirical analyses of Japanese cases, the book will shed a new light on governance for a sustainable future.
Download or read book Action Research for Sustainability written by Jonas Egmose and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can action research further new research orientations towards sustainability? This book, empirically situated in the field of upstream public engagement, involving local residents, researchers and practitioners in bottom-up processes deliberating on urban sustainability, answers this question by analysing processes of social learning. The book addresses the need to move towards sustainability at societal level as a democratic challenge questioning the way we live on planet earth. By conceptualising sustain-ability as an immanent and emergent ability of ecological and social life, continuously to renew itself without eroding its own foundation of existence, it argues that since sustainability cannot be invented but only supported (or eroded) by science, we need to reframe science in the role of sustaining sustain-ability. Through analyses of a three year action research programme, aiming to provide local citizens with a greater say in the future of urban sustainability research, this book shows how action research can make important methodological contributions to processes of social learning between citizens and scientists by enabling free spaces in peoples everyday life and within academia, where aspects of un-sustainability can be addressed and new imaginations of more sustainable futures emerge.
Download or read book Building Sustainable Futures written by Luc Reychler and published by Universidad de Deusto. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overall theme of the 2008 IPRA Global Conference focuses on the interaction between economic development, environmental change, conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts in the 21st century. The challenge is to re-search new futures. This collaborative book project ultimately reflects the constant evolution of Peace Studies as it is reflected in its expanding areas of research and the institutional structures which provide the vertebrae so that the former can develop with greater depth, continuity and sustainability. This is the reason why HumanitarianNet has teamed up with IPRA to produce this collection of articles.
Download or read book Global Energy Politics written by Thijs Van de Graaf and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.
Download or read book Sustainable Futures written by Margaret Robertson and published by ACER Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The result of extraordinary collaboration between ten scientists from around the world, Sustainable Futures offers a unique and fascinating approach to sustainable development issues in developing countries.
Download or read book Environment Ethics and Cultures written by Kay Stables and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-02-27 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This collection engages environmental, ethical and cultural values perspectives to show how Design and Technology (D&T) Education actively contributes to the significant educational goal of attaining sustainable global futures. An international collection of authors representing all levels of education articulate how D&T research, curriculum theory, policy, and classroom practices can synergise to contribute positively to the education of children for sustainable global futures. The book offers a spectrum of theorised curriculum positions, political and policy analysis, and case studies of successful school practice. A key word in the title is that of contribution which is construed in several senses: first, of D&T as a vehicle for understanding the range of political and social values that arise with such a major educational challenge; second, of D&T as an agent of critical and practical action for students as global citizens; third, by taking global and multiple perspectives (rather than, say, Western or mono-cultural positions); and, fourth, by demonstrating D&T’s capacities for working in holistic and integrative cross-curricular ways. The authors show how students can not only learn about their potential as humans-as-designers but can also develop designerly capacities that enable them to contribute meaningfully in practical ways to their communities and to wider society, that is, as global citizens who can apply design capability in ethical ways that are respectful of peoples, cultures and environments alike."
Download or read book Energy Democracy written by Denise Fairchild and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The near-unanimous consensus among climate scientists is that the massive burning of gas, oil, and coal is having cataclysmic impacts on our atmosphere and climate. These climate and environmental impacts are particularly magnified and debilitating for low-income communities and communities of color. Energy democracy tenders a response and joins the environmental and climate movement with broader movements for social and economic change in this country and around the world. Energy Democracy brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives to show what an alternative, democratized energy future can look like. The book will inspire others to take up the struggle to build the energy democracy movement.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Democracy and Sustainability written by Basil Bornemann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook provides comprehensive and critical coverage of the dynamic and complex relationship between democracy and sustainability in contemporary theory, discourse, and practice. Distinguished scholars from different disciplines, such as political science, sociology, philosophy, international relations, look at the present state of this relationship, asking how it has evolved and where it is likely to go in the future. They examine compatibilities and tensions, continuities and changes, as well as challenges and potentials across theoretical, empirical and practical contexts. This wide-spanning collection brings together multiple established and emerging viewpoints on the debate between democracy and sustainability which have, until now, been fragmented and diffuse. It comprises diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives discussing democracy’s role in, and potential for, coping with environmental issues at the local and global scales. This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of arguments, claims, questions, and insights that are put forward regarding the relationship between democracy and sustainability. In the process, it not only consolidates and condenses, but also broadens and captures the many nuances of the debate. By showing how theoretical, empirical and practical accounts are interrelated, focusing on diverse problem areas and spheres of action, it serves as a knowledge source for professionals who seek to develop action strategies that do justice to both sustainability and democracy, as well as providing a valuable reference for academic researchers, lecturers and students.
Download or read book Co creating Sustainable Urban Futures written by Niki Frantzeskaki and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a unique book that provides rich knowledge on how to understand and actively contribute to urban sustainability transitions. The book combines theoretical frameworks and tools with practical experiences on transition management as a framework that supports urban planning and governance towards sustainability. The book offers the opportunity to become actively engaged in working towards sustainable futures of cities. Readers of this book will be equipped to understand the complexity of urban sustainability transitions and diagnose persistent unsustainability problems in cities. Urban planners and professionals will build competences for designing transition management processes in cities and engaging with multidisciplinary knowledge in solution-seeking processes. The heart of the book marks the variety of very different local case studies across the world – including, amongst others, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, La Botija in Honduras, Sydney in Australia and Cleveland in the US. These rich studies give inspiration and practical insights to young planners on how to create sustainable urban futures in collaboration with other stakeholders. The case studies and critical reflections on applications of transition management in cities offer food for thought and welcome criticism. They also introduce new lenses to understand the bigger picture that co-creation dynamics play in terms of power, (dis-)empowerment, legitimacy and changing actor roles. This will equip the readers with a deep understanding of the dynamics, opportunities and challenges present in urban contexts and urban sustainability transitions.
