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After the Great Transformation
Ted Nordhaus Introduces Breakthrough Journal Issue 6
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At some point over the last decade, the
human population crossed a remarkable threshold. Today, over half of
humanity lives in cities and towns, up from one-third in 1960 and only 3
percent in 1800. By 2050, the United Nations estimates, two-thirds of
the global population will live in urban settings.
The shift from rural to urban represents far more than a change in
settlement patterns. It brings with it profound changes in social,
political, and economic organization: the urbanization of the planet has
been largely inseparable from industrialization and the rise of market
economies.
Writing at the close of World War II, the sociologist and economic
historian Karl Polanyi called that shift “the Great Transformation.” For
most people over the past two centuries, the Great Transformation has
entailed moving from subsistence agriculture to off-farm employment;
from economic relations based upon barter, tribute, and reciprocity to
those structured around markets and wages; and from economies in which
arable land, and the amount of labor that could be applied to it, were
the sole determinants of wealth and economic growth to economies in
which capital and technology have untethered human well-being from brute
physical labor.
In this, the sixth issue of the Breakthrough Journal,
we consider the Great Transformation, if not fully in retrospect, then
at least from deep within it. We live today on an increasingly urban and
industrialized planet. The Great Transformation has solved old problems
and created new ones. And while the nature of the shift from premodern
economies to what Polanyi called “market society” has long been clear,
what comes after has yet to be written...
To read Ted's full introduction click here
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Breakthrough Journal Issue 6
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After the Baby Bust
The Politics and Ecology of Zero Population Growth
By Paul Robbins
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Having
calmed down from the overblown twentieth-century fears of
overpopulation, the world has yet to grapple with the end of population
growth–and even de-population–that will occur this century. As Paul
Robbins observes, global population growth rates peaked in the 1970s,
and if current trends continue, some countries could see their
citizenries substantially depleted in the coming decades. As native
populations in Germany and the United Kingdom dwindle, replaced by
immigrants from rapidly growing countries in Africa and Asia, a surge in
nationalism and cultural upheaval is already apparent. What comes next
depends on how governments and civil society this radical new order of
things. Read the piece here
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Does Capitalism Require Endless Growth?
Marx and Malthus Reconsidered
By Harry Saunders
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Does
capitalism require endless growth in material consumption? Many
mainstream economists and their "de-growther" interlocutors have long
assumed so. At least one economist sees things differently. In this
essay, Harry Saunders examines the changes in consumption of resources
and the shifting shape economies take after decades of growth. While
industry and heavy manufacturing still appear essential for early-stage
growth, it also just might be the case that rich countries can produce
goods and services more efficiently and rely more on services and
knowledge, slowing or stopping the growth in material throughput of
economic activity. If Saunders is right, his observations have major
implications for environmental sustainability in the 21st century. Read the piece here
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Taking Modernization Seriously
How to Think About Global Industrialization
By Michael Lind
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"Sustainable
development" has been in vogue for at least 30 years: the concept that
traditional modernization worked, but wrecked the planet and failed to
equitably distribute the benefits of modernity. Something new must
replace the growth pattern on display in the history of Europe, Japan,
Korea, and elsewhere. Using US history as a template, historian Michael
Lind argues against the vogue. The conventional path to modernity
remains the only proven one available, he writes. What's more, it need
not be as environmentally destructive or unequal as its detractors would
suggest. Read the piece here
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Modern Pope
Laudato Si' and the Effort to Reform the Feudal Church
By Sally Vance-Trembath
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Is
the Roman Catholic Church evolving, or does it, as its critics insist,
remain a powerful vanguard against the benefits of modernity, growth,
and egalitarianism? Theologian Sally Vance-Trembath uses Pope Francis'
much-discussed climate encyclical to argue that Francis is, through the
lens of Catholic Social Teaching, pulling the Church slightly but
unmistakbly into the modern age. The encyclical and broader Catholic
perspective on modernity are muddled, Vance-Trembath writes, but above
all, the Church views human ingenuity and mastery of technology as
evidence of the divine in our daily work. Read the piece here
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High-Tech Desert
The Great Decoupling of the West's Water
By John Fleck
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Not
one person has died as a result of California's ongoing drought. That
might come as little comfort to the farmers forced to abandon fields of
crops or skiiers whose slopes were emptied of snow, but it is a small
and almost completely ignored success story hidden behind doom-and-gloom
headlines. In this essay, water expert John Fleck looks at the last
several decades of water policy in the Western United States, observing
dramatic improvements in efficiency everywhere from Los Angeles to the
Central Valley. More work remains, Fleck argues, but so far, the West's
declining reliance on water is an underappreciated case study in
decoupling economic growth from environmental impacts. Read the piece here
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Love and Vinyl Chloride
A Deep Ecologist Reconciles With His Father and the Modern World
By Michael E. Zimmerman
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In
forrays into environmental philosophy, many of us forget–or neglect–the
powerful personal forces that push us towards a certain way of thinking
about the world. Michael Zimmerman does not make this mistake. In an
eye-opening essay, Zimmerman looks back at his role as a founding member
of "Deep Ecology" and his relationship with his father, both of which
changed over the course of several decades as he came to terms with the
process and progress illustrated by the manufacturing of vinyl
chloride. Read the piece here
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Oakland, CA 94612
510 550 8800
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