Sustainable Futures—An Agenda for Action

Abstract

At first glance—and despite the uncontested reputation of its author—the title of this book sounded overambitious if not presumptuous to me. At second glance, which is after a careful and fascinating read of the book, it sounds more ambivalent though. The title is simultaneously understated and overstated. It is understated, since the book provides far more than an agenda for action because only the three last out of nine chapters deal with aims and actions. It builds on a very substantial historic and cross-sectoral analysis of political–economic trajectories that led to the current cumulation of crises. At the same time, it might be perceived as overstated, because the subtitle may raise expectations going beyond what the author suggests in terms of concrete actions and strategies (see further below). The first six chapters not only provide a thoroughly substantiated basis for the author’s argument toward paradigmatic change, this section is also an unedited and compelling synthesis, bringing together interdisciplinary scientific views on nature, societies, and the prevalent economic system. Targeting a wider audience, the author succeeds in combining a readable language with a dense and differentiated account. These introductory chapters present an intriguing and sharp analysis of the driving forces of the mass production system, resulting in rapidly growing inequalities, a ruling plutocracy of powerful corporate actors and lobby groups, and an acceleration of resource depletion, biodiversity loss, climate change, and other negative environmental impacts. Amongst others, he reveals the consequences of planned obsolescence of consumer goods, and challenges the dematerialization hypothesis that he deconstructs as—at best—a mere relative decoupling of resource use and economic growth. Considering mass production as a phasing out paradigm according to Freeman and Perez’s Techno-Economic Paradigm (TEC) nomenclature, he identifies information and communication technologies (ICT) as the prevalent agent of economic change. Only its transformative potential for a more sustainable transition seems undervalued. Whether one adheres or not to the concept of TEC and the idea of an ICT paradigm succeeding industrial mass production, it comes most timely to critically discuss a possible reconciliation of electronic technologies and sustainability imperatives. Undoubtedly, ICT bear a high potential of facilitating more resource efficient ways of production and consumption. However, and although the author repeatedly declines the notion of sole technological fix–oriented approaches, his understanding of ICT reads overly optimistic at times or tends to be superficial at least. This is the case, for example, when praising Uber and similar services as sustainable sharing solutions or when emphasizing robot-based precision farming as the most promising way to make agriculture more environmentally friendly (i.e., through a more efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides). Admittedly, the transformative practices chosen to illustrate chapter 7 BO O K R EV EW