Progress or Collapse
Progress or Collapse

Author: Roberto De Vogli

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-03

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1135102910

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Human progress is heading toward collapse. There are converging ecological crises looming on the horizon: climate change, peak oil, water shortages, fish depletion and food scarcities. The world is on a collision course against the limits of the ecosystem. Modern societies are consuming, polluting and growing as if there is no tomorrow. Indeed, there may not be one. In Progress or Collapse, Roberto De Vogli guides us through the multiple converging global crises of economic progress. He explores the connections between the environmental crisis and the psychological, social, cultural, political and economic emergencies affecting modern societies. It is not a coincidence, the author argues, that global ecological destruction is occurring in tandem with other crises: rising mental disorders, mindless consumerism, rampant conformism, status competition, civic disengagement, startling social inequalities, global financial instability, and widespread political impasse. In this hard-hitting analysis, Roberto De Vogli identifies the root cause of all these symptoms of societal breakdown: neoliberalism, defined as market greed. He argues that in recent decades, modern societies have been dominated by a suicidal economic doctrine based on two articles of faith: the greed creed and the market God. The greed creed states that people are nothing but selfish profiteers in a perpetual search for status and wealth. The market God is the belief that all societal and human affairs are best regulated as market exchanges. What is to be done? Can we stop progress toward collapse? Given the current distribution of power and wealth, and the state of psychological and political inertia in which we are trapped, our chances of redefining progress around alternative values and embracing a new philosophy of life are slim. Yet, the history of human emancipation has often been shaped by giant leaps forward. In the past, civic struggles have overcome "the limits of the possible". Whether this will happen again in the future is the central question of our time. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of ecology, psychology, public health, epidemiology, human development, political philosophy, economics, sociology and politics.

The Fall of Humankind and Social Progress
The Fall of Humankind and Social Progress

Author: Arttu Mäkipää

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-21

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1000911055

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This book investigates the link between human capabilities and the preconditions for social progress through an engagement with the theological anthropology of Swiss theologian Emil Brunner (1889–1966). It places Brunner’s thought in dialogue with selected contributors from the contemporary social sciences, examining approaches from economics, sociology and philosophy as put forward by Gary S. Becker, Christian Smith and Martha Nussbaum. This dialogic format helps to crystallise both agreements and differences and thus facilitate greater understanding between theology and other disciplines. Questions explored in the discussion relate to the emergence of human nature (the person) and the capabilities human beings possess, as well as how these develop in a social context. The author focuses in particular on the impact of sin (the Fall) and considers the mixed blessings of economic progress. By providing pointers on how to bring back the human person in social disciplines, the book hopes to contribute to improved understanding of the ethical dimension of social progress and human flourishing. It will be of particular interest to scholars of analytic and systematic theology, but also scholars from economics and social sciences with openness to theological engagement.

Progress in Nuclear Energy
Progress in Nuclear Energy

Author: M. M. R. Williams

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-10-22

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1483103366

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Progress in Nuclear Energy, Volume 5 covers the significant advances in several aspects of nuclear energy field. This book is composed six chapters that describe the progress in nuclear and gas-cooled reactors. The introductory chapter deals with the development and evolution of decay heat estimates and decay heat Standards, and illustrates the use of these estimates through comparison of both the actinide and fission product decay heat levels from typical fuel samples in a variety of reactor systems. The succeeding chapters present different practical methods for handling resonance absorption problem in the case of thermal reactor lattices and review the physics of the different noise phenomena. These topics are followed by discussions of the developed methodology for the description of breeding, conversion, long-term fuel logistics, and related subjects derived from the detailed mathematical description of the fuel cycle. The concluding chapters consider the historical development of heat transfer surfaces for gas-cooled reactors. These chapters also provide a complete set of differential nuclear data on the three technologically important americium isotopes, 241Am, 242Am, and 243Am, suitable for incorporation into the computer-based U.K. Nuclear Data Library. This book will prove useful to nuclear physicists and nuclear energy scientists and researchers.

Gender Inequalities and Development in Latin America During the Twentieth Century
Gender Inequalities and Development in Latin America During the Twentieth Century

Author: María Magdalena Camou

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1317130219

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This book presents evidence of the evolution of the gender inequalities in Latin America during the twentieth century, using basic indicators of human development, namely education, health and the labour market. There are very few historical studies that centre on gender as the main analytical category in Latin America, so this book breaks new ground. Using case-studies from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, the authors show that there is evidence of a correlation between economic growth and the decrease in gender inequality, but this process is also not linear. Although the activity rate of women was high at the beginning of the twentieth century, female participation in the labour market diminished, until the 1970s, when it began to increase dramatically. Since the 1970s, fertility reduction and education improvements and worsening labour market conditions are associated to the steadily increase of women participation in the labour market. By gauging the extent to which gender gaps in the formation of human capital, access to resources, quality of life and opportunities may have operated as a restriction on women’s capabilities and on economic growth in the region, this book demonstrates that Latin America has lagged behind in terms of gender equality.

The Rise and Fall of American Growth
The Rise and Fall of American Growth

Author: Robert J. Gordon

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-08-29

Total Pages: 785

ISBN-13: 1400888956

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How America's high standard of living came to be and why future growth is under threat In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Gordon contends that the nation's productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come.

Visions of Progress
Visions of Progress

Author: Douglas Charles Rossinow

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780812240498

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Rossinow revisits the period between the 1880s and the 1940s, when reformers and radicals worked together along a middle path between the revolutionary left and establishment liberalism. He takes the story up to the present, showing how the progressive connection was lost and explaining the consequences that followed.