Worlds in transition: evolving governance across a stressed planet

This book focuses on governance and successful adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances. It addresses the issue of environment and climate change, and advocates for the development of greatly enhanced capacity by human communities and institutions, at all levels (from the local to the global) for successful adaptation to dealing with war, human rights, poverty reduction, humanitarian disasters, the environment, trade and now even finance.

The book’s detailed analysis of five strategic sectors (economy, environment, health, information and security) points to an intricate and rapidly evolving interplay of geopolitical, cultural and ecological spaces. It discerns the emergence of a new governance regime striving for a leap in human reflexivity in response to the challenges of a stressed world that is simultaneously singular and plural.

This evolutionary and inter-disciplinary study of human governance appeals to a wide international audience and intends to be an invaluable reference for scholars, researchers and students of the physical and social sciences concerned with understanding the complexities of the current human predicament. Those working in the fields of international relations, economics, politics, security studies, political economy, environmental studies, cultural studies, and science and technology studies will find it especially useful. National and international policymakers will also find much to interest them.

Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Human Organisation: The Evolutionary Context 3. Governance in the Context of Human Evolution 4. The Modern Epoch and its Limits 5. Economic Governance 6. Governing Atmospheric Flows 7. A Defining Issue of Our Time 8. The Evolving Governance of Information Flows 9. Governance, Pathogens and Human Health 10. Globalisation of Insecurity in the Era of Hegemonic Decline 11. Towards a New Security Discourse and Architecture 12. A Holoreflexive Epoch in the Making? Bibliography Index