Radical Transformation: Oligarchy, Collapse, and the Crisis of Civilization

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Between the Lines, Feb 6, 2018 - Nature - 264 pages

Radical Transformation is a tour de force.”– Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization

Radical Transformation is a story about industrial civilization’s impending collapse, and about the possibilities of averting this fate. Human communities first emerged as egalitarian, democratic groups that existed in symbiotic relationship with their environments. Increasing complexity led to the emergence of oligarchy, in which societies became captive to the logic of domination, exploitation, and ecological destruction. The challenge facing us today is to build a movement that will radically transform civilization and once more align our evolutionary trajectory in the direction of democracy, equality, and ecological sustainability.

 

Contents

Acknowledgements
Welcome to the Apocalypse
The Crisis of Civilization
Collapse
Dissociation
Complexity
Stratification
Overshoot
Oligarchy
Radical Transformation
The Death System
Toward a System of Life
Notes
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About the author (2018)

Kevin MacKay is a social science professor, union activist, and executive director of a sustainable community development cooperative. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and when not thinking, reading or writing about social change, can most likely be found in the woods.

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