Sustainable Global Communities in the Information Age
--- Visions from Futures Studies ---

edited by
Kaoru Yamaguchi

Published in September, 1997

No. of pp.: 256 incl. figs and index
ISBN: 0-7449-0132-4 (hardback)
0-7449-0133-2 (paperback)
Series: Adamantine Studies on the 21st Century, No. 21
Sterling Price: 35.00/16.95
Publication date: April 1997
Subject Categories:
Informational Technology/Sustainable Development/Futures Studies/Social Policy

Please order from:
Adamantine Press
21st Century Studies Ltd.
Richmond Bridge House
417-419 Richmond Road
Twickenham TW1 2EX
England
FAX +44 181 891 5027

Key Features:

Far-seeing, visionary, international 'anthology for tomorrow'. Contributors include two Nobel Laureates.

Description:

This book presents twenty visions for the twenty-first century, by twenty-three experts from every corner of the global village.

Contributors provide insights into such emerging areas as 'mechatronics', the new-paradigm combination of mechanistic and electronic technology; Community Land Trust schemes in the USA; the Japanese furusato(community) vision of local revitalization; Indian reconstruction of villages for the future; sustainable community development in the Philippines; Micronesia Futures in Asia and the Pacific; and Australian plans for 'interconnecting local communities globally'.

The contributions include Chinese and Korean perspectives cheek by jowl with accounts of recent North American information-age initiatives such as Sustainable Community Development in Wisconsin.

This text will appeal to knowledge workers worldwide and to students and teachers of knowledge networking and its coming role in the move toward building sustainable communities globally in the 21st Century and toward longer-term organizational and societal planning in general.

About the Editor

KAORU YAMAGUCHI received his Ph.D. in Economic Theory from the University of California at Berkeley, and his MA in Mathematical Economics from Kobe University, Japan. He is Professor in the Department of International Economics and the School of Business Administration, Nagoya University of Commerce, Japan.

Actively involved in futures studies since 1987, he was invited to attend UNESCO's 1992 seminar in Vancouver on "Teaching About the Future". Since then he has coordinated a series of future-orientated seminars -- World Futures-Creating Seminars -- in Awaji Island, Japan, with the active support of both UNESCO and the World Futures Studies Federation. He served till 1995 for an international advisory board member of Futures: the International Journal of Planning, Policy and Forecasting.

Contents:

Preface

PART ONE: Environmental issues and Futures Studies
1. Some Remarks on the Human and Planetary Condition
2. The Impact and Promise of the Cognitive Revolution
3. Futures Studies and Sustainable Community Development
4. UNESCO and Future-Orientated Studies

PART TWO: New Framework of Community Economy
5. Sustainability and a MuRatopian Economy
6. The Community Land Trust Model
7. Cultural Paradigm Shift Toward Sustainability

PART THREE: Building Sustainable Communities Globally
8. The Green Alternative: Towards a Future of Sustainable Communities in the United States
9. Toward Global Sustainable Community - A View from Wisconsin
10. New-Thinking Furusato Development in Central Japan
11. Sustainable Philosophy and Governance - A Korean Perspective
12. The Development of Rural Communities in China under Socialist Market Economy
13. The Operational Style of Chinese Market Economy in the 21st Century
14. New Center of the Future Society - Prosperous Villages in India
15. Community Development and the Futures of Sustainable Communities in the Philippines
16. Micronesia Futures in Asia and the Pacific
17. Interconnecting Local Communities Globally - An Australian Perspective

PART FOUR Sustainable Community Projects in Awaji Island
18. A Community-Wide Medical Network System
19. A Comprehensive Health Care and Welfare System in Goshiki-cho
20. Establishing a Higher Institution for Future-Orientated Studies

The Contributors:

Dirk Anthony Ballendorf is Professor of Micronesian Studies, University of Guam.

Ingrid Burkett is Research Associate, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Yoon-Jae Chung is Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science and International Relations, Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea.

James A. Dator is Professor, Dept. of Political Science, University of Hawaii and Director of the Hawaii's Research Center for Futures Studies.

Nandini Joshi is Managing Trustee, Foundation for Constructive Development, Ahmedabad, India.

Jerome Karle, a past chairman of the Chemistry Section of National Academy of Sciences, is at the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC. In 1985 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Michael LaFontaine is Director of the Land Trust Project, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Concord, New Hampshire, USA and serves on the faculty of the annual conference on Community Land Trusts throughout the United States.

Chuck Matthei, formerly Director of the Institute for Community Economics (ICE) is President, The Equity Trust, Inc., Voluntown, Connecticut, USA.

Takamaro Matsuura is Director of the Goshiki-cho Health and Welfare Center.

Kazuo Mizuta is Professor, School of Liberal Arts, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan.

San San Myint, formerly a lecturer with the Biology Dept. of Rangoon Arts and Science University, Burma, is presently at the Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Arts and Communication.

Hiroyuki Niwa, formerly chief correspondent for the Mainichi newspaper, Japan's foremost business paper, is Professor, Nagoya Cultural College, Japan.

Belden Paulson is Professor of Public Policy, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and a co-founder of Plymouth Institute, a centre for sustainable development.

Qin Linzheng, Research Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is an international advisory board member of Futures and Secretary-General of the Chinese Society for Future Studies.

Mitsugo Saito is former Mayor of Goshiki-cho, Japan.

Albert Sasson is Director of the Bureau of Studies, Programming and Evaluation at UNESCO in Paris.

Roger Sperry was for thirty years Hixon Professor of Pyscobiology at Caltech, the California Institute of Technology. In 1981 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine and in 1989 received from President George Bush the National Medal of Science.

Tony Stevenson is Director, The Communications Center, Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia and Secretary-General of the World Futures Studies Federation.

Brian Toke, an activist for 20 years in the peace, anti-nuclear. And environmental movements, is Associate faculty member in Social Ecology at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, USA.

Cesar Villaneuva is Director of BALAYAN - the Community Development and Volunteer Formation Office of the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, Philippines.

Theodore Voneida is Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Neurobiology, Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine, Ohio, USA.

Zhang Zerong is Professor and Director of the Economics Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of the Social Sciences, China.