The Great Transformation: History for a Techno-Human Future
- ISBN-10
- 1317286294
- ISBN-13
- 9781317286295
- Series
- The Great Transformation
- Category
- Social Science
- Pages
- 272
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-04-24
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Author
- Judith Bessant
Description
While AI, robots, bio-technologies and digital media are transforming work, culture and social life, there is little understanding of or agreement about the scope and significance of this change. This new interpretation of the ‘great transformation’ uses history and evolutionary theory to highlight the momentous shift in human consciousness taking place. Only by learning from recent crises and rejecting technological determinism will governments and communities re-design social arrangements that ensure we all benefit from the new and emerging technologies. The book documents the transformations underway in financial markets, entertainment, medicine, affecting all aspects of work and social life. It draws on historical sociology and co-evolutionary theory arguing that the radical evolution of human consciousness and social life now underway is comparable to, if not greater than the agrarian revolution (10,000 BCE), the explosion of science, philosophy and religion in the Axial age (600 BCE), and the recent industrial revolution. Turning to recent major socio-economic crisis, and asking what can be learnt from them, the answer is we cannot afford this time around to repeat the failures of elites and theoretical systems like economics to attend appropriately to radical change. We need to think beyond the constraints of determinist and reductionist explanations and embrace the idea of deep freedom. This book will appeal to educators, social scientists, policy-makers, business leaders and students. It concludes with social design principles that can inform deliberative processes and new social arrangements that ensure everyone benefits from the affordances of the new and emerging technologies.
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Other editions
-
- 2024-06-20
- - pages
- Paperback
- Random House
-
- 2018
- 262 pages
- Paperback
- Routledge Advances in Sociology
-
- 2009-02-24
- 592 pages
- Paperback
- Vintage Canada
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