what you get here

This is not a blog which opines on current events. It rather uses incidents, books (old and new), links and papers to muse about our social endeavours.
So old posts are as good as new! And lots of useful links!

The Bucegi mountains - the range I see from the front balcony of my mountain house - are almost 120 kms from Bucharest and cannot normally be seen from the capital but some extraordinary weather conditions allowed this pic to be taken from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel in late Feb 2020

Saturday, October 26, 2019

A Rare example of inter-disciplinarity

Readers know how distasteful I find the ever-increasing narrowness of academic disciplines. The very second post this year's blog posed a question which has bothered me for years –  

Why so little energy seems to be spent attempting to get consensus on the way forward for the deficiencies which have been so visible over the past decade in the economic system which we know, variously, as “globalization” or, increasingly, as “capitalism”.
The UN had its fingers burned when, in 2009, it organized the first and only Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis. The G77 group of 130 developing countries tried to insert text that mandated a major role for the UN in dealing with the crisis and backed a comprehensive set of reforms, but northern countries including the US and the EU played a blocking game. Joseph Stiglitz was the author of what remained a Preliminary Report

That post praised the Club of Rome for having the courage to produce Come On! Capitalism, short-termism, population and the destruction of the planet; (Club of Rome 2018) -  superbly summarized in this article in the fascinating Cadmus journal. And went on to say that I understood the reluctance of professionals to get engaged in such work – knowing how aggressively they would be accused of “leftism”, “populism”… and even greater crimes….

I am, of course, aware of The Great Transition Initiative which encourages individuals to comment on a monthly question and paper. It’s perhaps only nerds that me who read it – but at least it is reaching out to form a network…
The Next System is also a good source of well-written material - project of the US Democracy Collaborative. It had an initial report – The Next System Report – political possibilities for the 21st Century (2015) and references to good community practice in various parts of the world. It has since followed up with a series of worthwhile papers.

But, thanks to the current issue of the journal Political Quarterly, I have just learned of a very worthwhile endeavour called The International Panel for Social Progress (IPSP) - a bottom–up initiative launched by a group of researchers from different disciplines, whose first congress was held in 2015 in Istanbul.
While its basic structure and operational principles are similar to those of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), its remit is rather different. The aim of the IPSP is to

‘harness the competence of hundreds of experts about social issues’ and ‘to deliver a report addressed to all social actors, movements, organizations, politicians and decision-makers, in order to provide them with the best expertise on questions that bear on social change’.

It may not offer an agenda for change - but it does something which is actually even more important - it offers an impartial and wide-ranging picture of social, economic and technical trends as you are likely to get from any other single source. 
The IPSP is not the first panel to analyse social and economic issues of pressing relevance. Various international organisations regularly monitor, for example, labour market conditions (ILO), or the dynamics of inequality and poverty (World Bank), or social inclusion, across the globe (UN Sustainable Goals). But the IPSP

does not just talk the talk when it comes to interdisciplinarity, it actually provides a shining example of what social scientists can do when they pool their skills, freely crossing disciplinary boundaries and combining quantitative analysis and qualitative approaches.

You can download and read the Executive Summary as well as each chapter here -

Part I deals with socio-economic transformations, focusing on economic inequalities, growth and environmental issues, urbanisation, capitalist institutions of markets, corporations and finance, labour, concluding with a reflection on how economic organization determines wellbeing and social justice. Here is its chapter on social trends

Part II focusses on political issues, analyzing the current trends in democracy and the rule of law, the forms and resolutions of situations of violence and conflicts, the mixed efficacy of supranational institutions and organisations, as well as the multiple forms of global governance, and the important role for democracy of media and communications. It concludes with a chapter on the challenges to democracy raised by inequalities, and the various ways in which democracy can be rejuvenated.

Part III is devoted to transformations in cultures and values, focussing on cultural trends linked to ‘modernisation’ and its pit-falls, as well as globalisation, the complex relationship between religions and social progress, the promises and challenges in ongoing transformations in family structures and norms, trends and policy issues regarding health and life–death issues, the ways in which education can contribute to social progress  and finally, the important values of solidarity and belonging.

The report offers a refreshingly balanced view of the state of social progress and the perspectives for change. It embraces neither a ‘doom and gloom’ perspective, nor neoliberal optimism. Societies do face significant problems, and the report hides none of them: inequalities are reaching unprecedented levels; in large parts of the world human development shows no signs of improvement; corporations are becoming increasingly powerful; automation leads to the disappearance of good jobs in a number of sectors; low-intensity violent conflicts show no sign of decrease throughout the world; liberal democracies are facing major challenges.

Reading, or even approaching, a scientific report consisting of three volumes, with a total of 850 pages and written by a panel of more than 260 authors, certainly looks like adaunting task. One is tempted to give up without even trying. And yet, such a first impression would be misleading. Not only is this an important contribution summarizing an impressive intellectual endeavour, it is also a genuinely interesting and engaging read.

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