What are the major
issues and problems facing global humanity? What is the global context for
our local problems and individual actions? Are these problems solvable with present day
technology and known resources? What role do you play in inventing desired futures for a
global society?and bringing them into being? This presentation discusses some of the strategies
and costs for meeting the world's basic human needs and regenerating the environment. It will
also explore the role of the individual as responsible actor on the global stage, as well as the
need for leadership and innovation in helping the world move toward what we envision
PART I: WORLD PROBLEMS
Introduction
Preliminary investigations
show that, surprisingly enough, there in no systematic descriptive
listing of "world problems" nor any systematic attempt to show their interrelationship or
how
they are nested within one another - even in the case of the subset constituted by human
environment problems. This impedes progress towards formulation of widely acceptable
strategies capable of attracting adequate resources to attack complex networks of problems. It
also confuses research priorities and obscures critical leverage points in the network at which
research and action may be most beneficial with a minimum of resources.
There is a tendency
for information systems, organizations and programs to get "locked into"
recognition of one particular pattern or mode of problems only, and to "over- identify" with
them. (Donald Schon. Beyond the Stable State: public and private learning in a changing
society. London, Temple Smith, 1971) This results in a multiplicity of candidates for "the
key
problem" requiring maximum allocation of resources, of which each appeals to constituencies
having often little basis or desire for inter- communication. Examples are: refugees, economic
development, environment, peace, youth, urban renewal, drug addiction, etc. It is dangerous to
define problems in isolation from one another (Harold Lasswell. From fragmentation to
configuration. Policy Sciences, 2, 1971, p. 439-446.).
It is useful to
challenge the thinking trap of "problem-solving". The approach to problems may
then be reframed by asking myself what a problem is "trying to tell me" -- or, better still,
is the
problem as understood in effect a metaphor for something I would prefer not to understand?
From this perspective "institutionalized" problems may in effect be a sort of metaphorical
euphemism -- a package which it is better not to unwrap. Problems are not only nasty in
themselves, they are also nasty in what they imply about myself -- however much I endeavour
to occupy the moral high ground as a disinterested change agent, victim or innocent bystander.
1. Schedule
