Sustainable Global Communities In The Information Age: Visions From Futures Studies.

• Author: Perkel, Ronald Drew
• Position: Review

Sustainable Global Communities In The Information Age: Visions From Futures Studies Yamaguchi, Kaoru, ed. (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997) 242 pp.

Sustainable Global Communities In The Information Age: Visions from Futures Studies is a collection of 21 essays by 23 authors. Each offers a vision for achieving sustainable economic and social global growth in a world where the established paradigm of industrial and capitalist development ma be leading to ecological, economic, political and social crises. The volume's editor, Dr. Kaoru Yamaguchi, is a classically trained mathematical economist who has concluded that an interdependent and holistic approach to community development is necessary if natural resource and community sustainability are to be achieved.

Advocating an interdisciplinary academic approach known as "future-oriented studies," Dr. Yamaguchi is working to establish a graduate-level institution in Futures Studies to give policymakers the skills to design balanced growth policies in an increasingly interconnected global community. In conjunction with other world futures studies organizations, Dr. Yamaguchi has organized several futures studies seminars. This volume is a compendium of the proceedings of the first, held on Awaji Island, Japan, from 16 to 19 August, 1993.

The result is an eclectic collection of writings by leading thinkers in fields ranging from neurobiology to political science to telecommunications, including two Nobel laureates, Dr. Roger W. Sperry and Dr. Jerome Karle. Various perspectives on futures-oriented community development from around the world are presented and discussed.

These perspectives share the premise that current industrial age economic practices of resource exploitation, inexorable capital expansion and division of labor cannot sustain ecological and species diversity into the future. Moreover, these production/ consumption models are held responsible for the ongoing degradation of human quality of life, health and spirituality. However, futures studies also express optimism that burgeoning networked communication and information technology linkages could transform global society into interconnected global villages and "eco-share" regions. The notion of a "MuRatopian" (from the Japanese and Zen Buddhist words and concepts signifying a village free of materially confining possessions) economic society is a recurring theme. It envisions communities of self-managed producer/consumers who...