Governance in the Holocene

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek ◽  
Jonathan Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Environmental Negotiations ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Decisive Action

In the late Holocene, humans and their social institutions came to endanger their planetary comfort zone. Holocene institutions have had their successes when it comes to economic prosperity and even (recently) limiting violent conflict. But change that could enable governance to grapple with Anthropocene conditions is blocked where it is most needed. Dominant institutions such as states and markets have found ways to organize feedback that confirms their own necessity. Financial institutions become “too big to fail,” capitalist markets punish governments that depart from neoliberal economic recipes, and global environmental negotiations absorb the energy of activists and civil society even when they are not producing much decisive action. At the same time governance fails to take signals from a changing Earth system seriously enough—let alone anticipate future crises. As a result, institutional and policy innovation is blocked, and dysfunctional institutions and practices constitute highly problematic—even pathological—path dependency.

Institutions for the Anthropocene: Governance in a Changing Earth System

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 937-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Practices

The unusually stable Earth system of the Holocene epoch of the past 10,000 years, in which human civilization arose, is yielding to a more dynamic and unstable Anthropocene epoch driven by human practices. The consequences for key institutions, such as states, markets and global governance, are profound. Path dependency in institutions complicit in destabilizing the Earth system constrains response to this emerging epoch. Institutional analysis highlights reflexivity as the antidote to problematic path dependency. A more ecological discourse stresses resilience, foresight and state shifts in the Earth system. Ecosystemic reflexivity can be located as the first virtue of political institutions in the Anthropocene. Undermining all normative institutional models, this analysis enables re-thinking of political institutions in dynamic social-ecological terms.

Advancing Human Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Stewart ◽  
Gustav Ranis ◽  
Emma Samman
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Political Freedoms ◽  
Sustained Success

The book provides a comprehensive account of the human development (HD) approach to development. It shows how it emerged as a consequence of defects in earlier strategies, especially growth maximization. The book investigates the determinants of success and failure in HD across developing countries over the past forty years. Cross-country investigations show broad determinants of success and failure, while country studies give detailed examples of the policies and politics of HD. HD is multidimensional, and the book points to the importance of social institutions and social capabilities as essential aspects which are often overlooked. Yet the widely cited Human Development Index does not measure these aspects nor many of the other important dimensions of HD. The book analyses political conditions which are critical factors underlying performance on HD. The final chapter surveys global progress on multiple dimensions over a forty-year period and shows that there has been marked and pervasive improvement in many of them, including basic HD—life expectancy and infant mortality, education and incomes—as well as political freedoms. But there has been deterioration on some dimensions—with rising inequality in many countries and worsening environmental conditions. The book concludes with challenges to the approach—in particular insufficient attention has been paid to the macroeconomic conditions and economic structure needed for sustained success; and social institutions and political conditions have also been neglected. But the biggest neglect is the environment—with worsening global environmental conditions potentially threatening future achievements on HD.

scholarly journals Ecological resource availability: a method to estimate resource budgets for a sustainable economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Desing ◽  
Gregor Braun ◽  
Roland Hischier
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Annual Production ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Sustainable Economy ◽  
Safe Limits ◽  
One Step ◽  
Environmental Limits ◽  
Environmental Burdens

Non-technical summary Resources are the basis of our economy and their provision causes major shares of the global environmental burdens, many of which are beyond safe limits today. In order to be sustainable, our economy needs to be able to operate within those boundaries. As resources are the physical ‘currency’ of our economy, we present a method that allows translating Earth system boundaries into resource budgets. This ecological resource availability determines the global annual production of a resource that can be considered absolutely sustainable. The budgets can be managed like financial budgets, bringing absolute environmental limits one step closer to decision-makers.

The Traitor and the Hedonist: The Mythology of Motherhood in Two New Zealand Child Abuse Cases

2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Jean Kenix
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Local Media ◽  
The Media

Two recent child abuse cases in New Zealand flooded the local media spotlight and captured the public's attention. In both cases, the mothers were not charged with murdering their children. Yet both mothers received extensive scrutiny in the media. This qualitative analysis found two central narratives in media content: that of the traitor and that of the hedonist. In drawing upon such archetypal mythologies surrounding motherhood, the media constructed these women as simplistic deviants who did not possess the qualities of a ‘real’ mother. These framing techniques served to divert scrutiny away from civil society and exonerated social institutions of any potential wrongdoing, while also reaffirming a persistent mythology that remains damaging to women.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND IMPACT INVESTING

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-221
Author(s):  
Maarten J. Verkerk
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
World View ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Impact Investing ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Accounting Scandals ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Global World

The financial crisis and accounting scandals in large companies have stimulated a thorough assessment of the contribution of enterprises and financial institutions to the greater public good and economic prosperity. This assessment has led to a revaluation of the ideas of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. In this article we explore the nature and character of these ideas by a philosophical analysis and by comparison with profit-driven organizations and corporate social responsibility. We show that social entrepreneurs and impact investors distinguish themselves by their social and environmental objectives, their focus on the justified interests of all stakeholders, and their values and world view. We also make a reasonable case that in the coming decade social entrepreneurs and impact investors will play an important role in the development of the global world.

The Archaeology of Global Environment Change

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole L. Crumley
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Non Linear System

Recent, widely recognized changes in the Earth system are, in effect, changes in the coupled human–environment system. We have entered the Anthropocene, when human activity—along with solar forcing, volcanic activity, precession, and the like—must be considered a component (a ‘driver’) of global environmental change (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000; Levin 1998). The dynamic non-linear system in which we live is not in equilibrium and does not act in a predictable manner (see Fairhead, chapter 16 this volume for further discussion of non-equilibrium ecology). If humankind is to continue to thrive, it is of utmost importance that we identify the ideas and practices that nurture the planet as well as our species. Our best laboratory for this is the past, where long-, medium-, and short-term variables can be identified and their roles evaluated. Perhaps the past is our only laboratory: experimentation requires time we no longer have. Thus the integration of our understanding of human history with that of the Earth system is a timely and urgent task. Archaeologists bring two particularly useful sets of skills to this enterprise: how to collaborate, and how to learn from the past. Archaeology enjoys a long tradition of collaboration with colleagues in both the biophysical sciences and in the humanities to investigate human activity in all planetary environments. Archaeologists work alongside one another in the field, live together in difficult conditions, welcome collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines—and listen to them carefully—and tell compelling stories to an interested public. All are rare skills and precious opportunities. Until recently few practitioners of biophysical, social science, and humanities disciplines had experience in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Many scholars who should be deeply engaged in collaboration to avert disaster (for example, specialists in tropical medicine with their counterparts in land use change) still speak different professional ‘languages’ and have very different traditions of producing information. C. P. Snow, in The Two Cultures (1993 [1959]), was among the first to warn that the very structure of academia was leading to this serious, if unintended, outcome.

scholarly journals MULTIKULTURALISME SEBAGAI MODEL INTEGRASI ETNIS TIONGHOA Dl INDONESIA

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Eko Putro Hendro
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
New Order ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
National Integration ◽  
Old Order

The politics of ethnic assimilation and discrimination, especially one which was directed toward Tionghoa ethnic during the Old Order as well as the New Order, has resulted in social conflicts which threatens the process of national integration. Multiculturalism approach is a strategic offer to support the emergence of new social institutions to support the effort of developing civil society in Indonesia. Through the multiculturalism approach, recent stereotypical views, which have triggered conflicts, can be eliminated and the existence of Tionghoa ethnic group, including their presence as citizens, can be appreciated and respected. In that manner, the conflicts can be eliminated and altered into a mutualistic-simbiosist relation,

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