Social Sustainability, Past and Future by Sander van der Leeuw - 9781108498692

Social Sustainability, Past and FutureUndoing Unintended Consequences for the Earth's Survival\nAuthor(s): Sander van der Leeuw\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781108498692, 978-1108498692\nSynopsis\nIn this book, Sander Van der Leeuw examines how the modern world has been caught in a socio-economic dynamic that has generated the conundrum of sustainability. Combining the methods of social science and complex systems science, he explores how western, developed nations have globalized their world view and how that view has led to the sustainability challenges we are now facing. Its central theme is the co-evolution of cognition, demography, social organization, technology and environmental impact. Beginning with the earliest human societies, Van der Leeuw links the distant past with the present in order to demonstrate how the information and communications technology revolution is undermining many.