Jan Rotmans

It’s not surprising if you feel uneasy right now. In fact, it would be strange if you didn't. The world has become a very turbulent place and it feels like we’re in a state of permanent crises. We are living on the cusp of a new era, in which everything that we took for granted is being called into question. COVID-19, climate change, loss of biodiversity, energy crises, migration and droughts regularly make the headlines. In this ground-breaking book, Professor Jan Rotmans, a global authority on sustainable development and transition, analyses the world through a set of systemic crises: a financial-economic crisis, an ecological crisis, a moral crisis and a democratic crisis, all of which interact and reinforce each other. This multiple-system crisis affects us deeply and confronts us with persistent problems in our vital social systems. These systems are nearing their end and no longer meet the demands that we, as humans, place on them. The systems must now reinvent themselves, but we humans must reinvent ourselves too. That is the essence of system change. Exploring these crises from an individual, corporate and national perspective - including a bold 100-year plan for the future of the Netherlands - Rotmans offers fascinating examples of successful change and encourages us to act decisively and embrace the chaos in order to build a more optimistic future.

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing concern about the social and environmental risks which have come along with the progress achieved through a variety of mutually intertwined modernization processes. In recent years these concerns are transformed into a widely-shared sense of urgency, partly due to events such as the various pandemics threatening livestock, and increasing awareness of the risks and realities of climate change, and the energy and food crises. This sense of urgency includes an awareness that our entire social system is in need of fundamental transformation. But like the earlier transition between the 1750's and 1890's from a pre-modern to a modern industrial society, this second transition is also a contested one. Sustainable development is only one of many options. This book addresses the issue on how to understand the dynamics and governance of the second transition dynamics in order to ensure sustainable development. It will be necessary reading for students and scholars with an interest in sustainable development and long-term transformative change.

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing concern about the social and environmental risks which have come along with the progress achieved through a variety of mutually intertwined modernization processes. In recent years these concerns are transformed into a widely-shared sense of urgency, partly due to events such as the various pandemics threatening livestock, and increasing awareness of the risks and realities of climate change, and the energy and food crises. This sense of urgency includes an awareness that our entire social system is in need of fundamental transformation. But like the earlier transition between the 1750's and 1890's from a pre-modern to a modern industrial society, this second transition is also a contested one. Sustainable development is only one of many options. This book addresses the issue on how to understand the dynamics and governance of the second transition dynamics in order to ensure sustainable development. It will be necessary reading for students and scholars with an interest in sustainable development and long-term transformative change.

The Visions Project brought together a range of decision makers, scientists and thinkers to collectively envision a Europe of the future in terms of sustainable development, and this book is the result of their efforts. Addressing a range of contentious questions from employment to the environment, and approaching the issues from a wide variety of standpoints, these experts also give the reader an analysis of the status quo and ask pertinent and provoking questions about the Europe we are building for the future.