DSpace collection: 第20卷第3期

Concluding Comments: Developing a Strategy for Accelerating the Emergence of a Sustainable Global System

title: Concluding Comments: Developing a Strategy for Accelerating the Emergence of a Sustainable Global System abstract: Unacceptable global risks Humanity is now facing multiple existential problems including increasing shortages of fresh water and arable land, climate change, the loss of biodiversity, nuclear war and pandemics (e.g. WEF, 2016). Without a major course correction there is little evidence that future generations will inherit a safe and sustainable planet.

Futures Journalism A Strategy to Shift Our Focus from Current Affairs to Long-Term Solutions

title: Futures Journalism A Strategy to Shift Our Focus from Current Affairs to Long-Term Solutions abstract: Journalists have traditionally reported current affairs – or the very recent past – with the purpose of keeping their audience up to date. Yesterday’s news was quickly considered waste in a rapid consumption model typical of an industry nurtured by advertising.

A New Accounting and Taxation Paradigm

title: A New Accounting and Taxation Paradigm abstract: This paper responds to e.g. UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, COP 21’s Paris Agreement and the ongoing work within the EU/EC to develop more responsive tax systems across Members States. Although many such reports and proposals have been issued, and some useful tools developed to facilitate environmental impact-assessment in economic terms (e.g. SEEA), the platform for this debate still remains the century-old assumption that income and profit must constitute a basis for taxation. This paper describes why and how the tax system must be even more fundamentally redesigned; (i) from being a tool that first and foremost is for the generation of public income and the discouragement of some (but not all) social, health and environmental ills (by increased levies). (ii) to being a tool that first and foremost reduces the need for corrective government action and expenditures – by guiding corporate activities (and hence eventually also those of the general public) towards what benefits society at large – leading to better socioenvironmental conditions.

A Win-Win Strategy for Fossil-Fuel Producers and Environmentalists

title: A Win-Win Strategy for Fossil-Fuel Producers and Environmentalists abstract: Humanity now faces a dangerous dilemma: on one hand leading scientists predict that if we continue to burn coal, gas and oil the environmental consequences are likely to be catastrophic (e.g. Hansen et al., 2013); on the other hand many economists argue that if we stop using fossil fuels our industrial civilization will run out of energy and collapse (e.g. Canes, 2015). Although renewable technologies are beginning to compete with fossil fuels in the production of electricity, electricity is only 20% of energy use (IEA, 2014). In other areas—e.g. most heating, industrial production and transport—renewable alternatives are either non-existent or not yet cost-competitive.

Until 2100 there is a Plenty of Hope at the Bottom of Society and Out There in the Cosmos

title: Until 2100 there is a Plenty of Hope at the Bottom of Society and Out There in the Cosmos abstract: The universe of matter-energy unlike its apparent complexity could be extraordinary simple. For example, if you would like to know how much matter-energy can be squeezed into a volume of space as in a star without it shrinking under its own gravitational pull and turning into a blackhole you can solve Einstein’s field equations of curved spacetime to arrive at a simple equation that has been named after the physicist Hans Adolph Buchdahl who discovered it. The maximum mass-energy allowable inside a sphere to ensure a static Star is obtained from Buchdahl’s Theorem; that is providing a theoretical upper limit: M(max)=4/9*R/G*c^2

They are Wrong: The Work Does Not End an Essay

title: They are Wrong: The Work Does Not End an Essay abstract: The ‘end of work’ discussion (e.g., Adam Schaff, 1985; Jeremy Rifkin, 1995) has been concentrated on the narrow ‘paid job’ concept of work. Even futures researchers too often take this narrow concept as self-evident, so they follow job forecasts meticulously. Keeping people disposable is, however, a core value of the monetized profit economy. Automation has gotten rid of a lot of human workers and their jobs, but official statistics do not tell much about the total amount of work.

The JRC Scenario Exploration System - From Study to Serious Game

title: The JRC Scenario Exploration System - From Study to Serious Game abstract: This report describes how the European Commission engaged in developing a serious game in order to engage stakeholders with foresight scenarios created to support the EU policy-making process. Four scenarios were created through a classic scenario building methodology (2X2 matrix), describing possible transitions towards a more sustainable future for the EU in 2035. These scenarios were used as a basis to design a serious game to help players engage in systemic thinking, discover and create alternative futures, and create novel engagements between stakeholders. The game was developed over a four month period and entailed running 10 prototyping sessions involving players from various services of the European Commission and other organizations (industry, civil society, academia, etc.). A system was developed to be able to harvest the stories created during the gaming sessions as a basis for de-briefing, further discussions and strategic analyses after the game. Ultimately, the game has demonstrated its usefulness and value for both players and organizers, and our reflections on the development process offer insights as to game design strategies and how educational outcomes and principles can be effectively mapped onto game mechanics.

A Better Governance for a Better Future

title: A Better Governance for a Better Future abstract: The paper deals with the issue of whether a sustainable future for humankind can be reached or not. If not, human existence would not come to an end, but the quality of existence would considerably deteriorate. For many reasons, it is not easy to get onto a sustainable track. Doing so will require the equivalent of surgery on a “living body”. And many powerful vested interests are in the way. If success can at all be achieved, it will require considerable changes in global governance. The restricted quality of global governance today is a key deficit of the world we live in today. The author was often asked, what system of global governance rules for the world to implement, if one had the power to do so. The paper gives the answer to that question in the form of twelve interrelated elements of global governance for a sustainable future.

A ThriveAbility Scenario: Toward Thriving, Integrative Human Beings in a Thriving, Integrative, Global World

title: A ThriveAbility Scenario: Toward Thriving, Integrative Human Beings in a Thriving, Integrative, Global World abstract: In pursuing our personal, inter-personal and global development from birth to wisdom, we encounter more or less satisfactory opportunities in more or less satisfactory living conditions to grow our various capabilities. Integrative maps with their mappings of various practices, such as Barrett Brown’s Conscious Leader Development Framework (2015) and the ThriveAbility’s Foundation’s ThriveAbility Journey (Wood, 2015), can prove to be useful guides for many of us. Both the CLDF and ThriveAbility Journey provide contexts in which we can acknowledge that we can wake up our noetic heart—the seer who sees our inner worlds of images, thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories in our waking and dreaming states (Smith, 2012); grow up our senses and faculties through various levels of complexity in our body-mind; tune up our various capabilities so that they are operating effectively; clean up any messes we are involved in; connect up with others in collaborative engagements; and show up in our lives as fully alive thriving human beings with the capabilities to be able to address in healthy ways our current issues in personal, inter-personal and global thriveability.

Interior Transformation on the Pathway to a Viable Future

title: Interior Transformation on the Pathway to a Viable Future abstract: A common response to the global sustainability crisis is to argue that human values and culture need to transform. However, the nature of this interior transformation is rarely explored in any detail. Instead, transformation is held up uncritically as the saviour that can get us out of trouble. In this paper, I apply a personal causal layered analysis (CLA) to tease out the dimensions of interior transformation for a viable future in more detail. The analysis draws out competing narratives of interior transformation and explores the potential of these narratives to facilitate transformation of values and consciousness. A story of a thriving Earth emerges as a key cultural resource for interior transformation.

Adopting a Transdisciplinary Attitude in the Classroom, to Create a Viable Future

title: Adopting a Transdisciplinary Attitude in the Classroom, to Create a Viable Future abstract: To change our future we have to change the way our society educates children. Our modern system of education is mainly interested in formatting children to serve growth, consumption and competition. Over the years, the person has been erased to become a function to nourish blinded consumerism. This way of thinking and doing has participated in creating complex unsustainability in all spheres of our society governed by the power of profit. This being said, changing educational systems would take too long and the need for a viable future cannot wait. In this article, I demonstrate that a solution lies in the way teachers could approach their class in order to initiate a transformation from inside the existing system. The content of what they teach stays the same, but adopting a Transdisciplinary Attitude, teachers switch priority in order to exercise and extend their Duty of Care: care for individuals, communities and human species among other species. Doing so, it becomes possible to prioritise student’s quality of being while disciplines taught become instruments to help the child flourish, not the opposite. Then, a powerful peaceful insurrection of consciousness begins.

Education for Sustainable Development - Learning for Transformation. The Example of Germany

title: Education for Sustainable Development - Learning for Transformation. The Example of Germany abstract: This paper addresses education as the central element of sustainable development. In the last decades several international commissions and organizations agreed on the importance of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), resulting in the proclamation of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) by the United Nations in 2004. Mainly based on the experiences of the UN Decade of ESD (DESD) in Germany, the paper introduces the concept ESD and especially the concept of Gestaltungskompetenz, which focuses on specific skills and capabilities needed to decide and act in situations of uncertainty and complexity. Significant achievements as well as shortcomings and challenges in implementing ESD are described and the Global Action Programme (GAP) is introduced as a significant advancement of DESD and a pivotal contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Introduction to the Special Issue on “Exploring Paths to a Viable Future”

title: Introduction to the Special Issue on “Exploring Paths to a Viable Future” abstract: This Special Issue is focused on “Exploring paths to a viable future: obstacles and opportunities; requirements and strategies”. In our invitation for submissions we said: “Today we find ourselves at a difficult cross-road: although we know that business as usual is unsustainable, the path to a viable future is not clear…. This call for papers asks for articles,reports and essays exploring the enormous challenge of how the global political economy can be rapidly transformed into a sustainable system.”