In this Open Access book, Sander van der Leeuw examines how the modern world has been caught in a socioeconomic dynamic that has generated the conundrum of sustainability. Combining the methods of social science and complex systems science, he explores how western, developed nations have globalized their world view and how that view has led to the sustainability challenges we are now facing. Its central theme is the coevolution of cognition, demography, social organization, technology, and environmental impact. Beginning with the earliest human societies, van der Leeuw links the distant past with the present in order to demonstrate how the information and communications technology revolution is undermining many of the institutional pillars on which contemporary societies have been constructed. An original view of social evolution as the history of human information- processing, his book shows how the past offers insight into the present and can help us deal with the future.
Sander van der Leeuw is Foundation Professor in the Schools of Sustainability and Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. Trained as an archaeologist and historian, he specializes in long-term interactions between humans and their environments and pioneers the application of the complex adaptive systems approach to socioenvironmental challenges, technology, and innovation. Van der Leeuw is the author and editor of eighteen books. In 2012, he was awarded the “Champion of the Earth for Science and Innovation” prize by the United Nations Environment Program.
Author(s): S. van der Leeuw
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Series information
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Part I
1 How This Book Came About, What It Is, and What It Is Not
Introduction
Stepping Stones
The Book: What It Is and What It Is Not
Notes
2 Defining the Challenge
Background
Six Fundamental Points
Note
3 Science and Society
Introduction
The Great Wall of Dualism
Rationalism and Empiricism
The Royal Society and the Academies
The Emergence of the Life Sciences and Ecology
The Founding of the Modern Universities and the Emergence of Disciplines
The Instrumentalization of Science
Regaining Trust
Note
4 Transdisciplinary For and Against
Introduction
Interdisciplinarity
Multidisciplinarity Results in a Bee's Eye View
Transdisciplinarity, Intellectual Fusion, and Linking Science and Practice
Barriers to Practicing Transdisciplinary Science
Competencies for Transdisciplinary Research
5 The Importance of a Long-Term Perspective
Looking Far Back into the Past
The Importance of Slow Dynamics
We Need to Know the Healthy State of Our Planet
The Importance of Second-Order Change
The Accumulation of Unintended Consequences
Summary
Note
6 Looking Forward to the Future
Introduction
Past Perspectives on the Future
Analogue and Evolutionary Approaches to Understanding Past and Future
Ex Post vs. Ex Ante Perspectives
The Role of Modeling
Why Model?
Support Models and Process Models
Challenges to Integrated Modeling of Socioenvironmental Dynamics
Scenario Building
7 The Role of the Complex (Adaptive) Systems Approach
Introduction
Systems Science
Complex Systems
The Flow Is the Structure
Structural Transformation
History and Unpredictability
Chaotic Dynamics and Emergent Behavior
Diversity and Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms
Focus on Relations and Networks
Deterministic Chaos
Attractors
Multi-Scalarity
Occam's Razor
Some Epistemological Implications
Note
Part II
8 An Outline of Human Socioenvironmental Coevolution
Introduction
Human Information Processing Is at the Core
The Biological Evolution of the Human Brain
The Innovation Explosion: Mastering Matter and Learning How to Put the Brain to Use
The First Villages, Agriculture and Herding
The First Towns
The First Empires
The Roman Republic and Empire
Conclusion
Notes
9 Social Systems as Self-Organizing, Dissipative Information-Flow Structures
Introduction
Social Systems as Dissipative Structures
Perception, Cognition, and Learning
Communication: The Spread of Knowledge
Social Systems as Open Systems
Transitions in Social Systems as Dissipative Structures
Conclusion
Notes
10 Solutions Always Cause Problems
Introduction
The Pre- and Proto-History of the Rhine Delta
The Middle Ages: Keeping the Land Dry Leads to the Hoogheemraadschap Rijnland
The Early Modern Period: Land Is Turned into Water
The 'Golden Era': Water Is Again Transformed into Land
Regaining Lost Ground
The Aftermath
Summary and Conclusion
Note
11 Transitions in the Organization of Human Societies
Introduction
Information Processing and Social Control
Processing under Universal Control
Processing under Partial Control
Processing without Central Control
Phase Transitions in the Organization of Communication
Modes of Communication in Early Societies
Hierarchical, Distributed, and Heterarchical Systems
Information Diffusion in Complex Hierarchical and Distributed Systems
Complex Hierarchies
Distributed Systems
Instability and Differentiation
Heterarchical Systems
Conclusion
Appendix A
Ultradiffusion in Complex Hierarchies
Hierarchy Structure and Interference in Communications
Distributed Information Processing
Notes
12 Novelty, Invention, Change
Introduction
Technology as ''Tools and Ways to Do Things''
Objects and Ideas
The Presence and Absence of Change
Perspectives on Invention
Invention in Economics
Schumpeter's Focus on the Effects of (Exogenous) Technological Change
Usher's Cumulative Recombination Synthesis
Rosenberg and the Drivers of Technological Convergence
Arthur: The Observer's Perspective
Lane and Maxfield: The Innovator's Perspective
Open Questions
The Inventor and the Context: Niche Construction
Creation, Perception, Cognition, and Category Identification
How Are Technical Traditions Anchored?
The Locus of Invention
Notes
13 An Illustration of the Invention Process and Its Implications for Societal Information Processing
Introduction
The Niche in which the Potter Operates
Challenges Limit Products
Comparing Two Pottery-Making Traditions in This Light
Using the Paddle and Anvil on Negros Oriental, Philippines
Comparison
Mold-Shaping in Michoacán, Mexico
Comparison
Some Lessons
The Role of Artifacts and Technology in Society
Notes
14 Modeling the Dynamics of Socioenvironmental Transitions
Introduction
Second-Order Dynamics
Mobile and Early Sedentary Societies
The Emergence of Hierarchies
The First Bifurcation
The Second Bifurcation
The Third Bifurcation
The Fourth Bifurcation
Summary and Conclusion
Appendix B
Modeling Urban–Rural Interaction
Modeling Rural–Urban Interaction in a Regional System
Modeling Instabilities in Inter-Regional Trade
Conclusion
Notes
Part III
15 The Rise of the West as a Globally Powered Flow Structure
Introduction
The Rise of Western Europe 600–1900
The Dark Ages
The First Stirrings: 1000–1200
The Renaissance: 1200–1400
The Birth of the Modern World System: 1400–1600
The Territorial States and the Trading Empires: 1600–1800
The Industrial Revolution and its Aftermath: 1750–2000
Summary
The Changing Roles of Government and Business
Crises of the Twentieth Century
Conclusion
Notes
16 Are We Reaching a Global Societal ''Tipping Point''?
The Present Conundrum
The Environment
Global Demography and Health
Aging
Global Migration
Food (In-)Security
Fossil Energy
Finance
Trade, Protectionism, and Investment Flows
Debt
Aging Populations, Productivity, Savings, Debt, and Pension Systems
Innovation and Societal Coherence
Wealth Discrepancy
Urbanization
Globalization
Summary
A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective on ''Crises''
Accumulation of Unexpected Consequences
Notes
17 Not an Ordinary Tipping Point
Introduction
The Acceleration of Invention and Innovation
The Acceleration in Information Processing
The Information Explosion
Changing Relationships between Society and Space
The Impact of ICT on Time and Its Societal Management
Exploding Connectivity among Tools for Thought and Action
Reduction of Control over Information Processing
Blurring the Boundary between Information and Noise
A Society's Value Space Determines Signals and Noise
The Dynamics of Value Spaces
Wealth as the Predominant Global Metric
Our Western Value Space seems to Be Reaching a Boundary
Note
18 Our Fragmenting World
Introduction
The Race of the Red Queen
The Growing Dissolution of Our Global Governance System
The Spectacularization of Experience
Democracy under Pressure
The Deconstruction of Communities
The Transformation of Globalization
The Emergence of the Developing World
Big Data and Individuation
Automation and Artificial Intelligence
From Production to Distribution
Our Perception of the World
How These Trends Are Developing
Conclusion
Notes
19 Is There a Way Out?
Introduction
Individuals must Reengage in the Management of our Society
Designing a Plausible and Desirable Future
The Role of Narratives
Reconstructing Communities
The Future Role and Management of Cities
Dealing with the Acceleration in Information Processing
Our Role as Scientists in the Community
Notes
20 ''Green Growth''?
Introduction
Steady-State Economics
Sustainable Development Goals
Toward a Mindset Change
Pluri-Polarity
Possible Future Roles for ICT
The New World: How Might the ICT Revolution Impact on Society?
Emergence and Authority
Pull and Push
Compasses and Maps
Risk and Safety
Disobedience and Compliance
Practice and Theory
Diversity and Ability
Resilience and Strength
Systems and Objects
Conclusion
Notes
21 Conclusion
What Is the Message Thus Far?
What Are the Chances of Success?
Breaking the Fundamental Feedback Loop of Coevolution
Decentralization, Disruption, and Chaos
Bibliography
Index
