Planet Dialectics: Explorations in Environment and Development

by Wolfgang Sachs

Wolfgang Sachs is one of the most thoughtful intellectuals to deal with the dual crisis in the Western world's relations with nature and social justice. In this book readers will find trenchant and elegant explorations of some of the foremost issues the world faces at the beginning of the new efficiency--the mantra of our times; speed--the love affair with modernity; globalization--a market inevitability and the juggernaut of history?; sustainability--oxymoron as rhetoric; development--the 20th century’s great undelivered promise; limits--a new principle for the coming century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ecology

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Wolfgang Sachs (born 25 November 1946) is a researcher, writer and university teacher in the field of environment, development, and globalization.
He studied sociology and Catholic theology in Munich, Tübingen and Berkeley. He holds a master degree in sociology (1971), a master degree in theology (1972) and a PhD in social sciences (1975).
After a period (1975–1984) as Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Berlin he joined the Society for International Development in Rome as a co-editor of the journal Development. 1987–1990 he was Visiting Professor at Pennsylvania State University and 1990–1993 Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen.
In 1992 he edited and co-authored the volume The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power (London: Zed Books), by now a 'classic' in (Post-)Development Studies, which has been translated into a dozen languages. A new edition, including a new preface, was published in 2010.
Since 1993 Sachs has worked at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy In Germany, since 2009 as head of the Berlin Office. He served also as chairman of Greenpeace Germany from 1993 to 2001, and as a lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1999 to 2001. On behalf of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Berlin, he chaired two international civil society expert panels, one to draft a memorandum for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 (The Jo'burg Memo) and the other (also on behalf of Misereor) to carry out a Dialogue / Report on multilateral trade rules for sustainable markets in agriculture (Slow Trade – Sound Farming, 2007). He is also Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the annual fair "Terra Futura" in Florence, Italy a Curator of the annual "Toblach Talks" in Toblach, Italy, and a co-organizer of the annual "Spiekeroog Climate Talks" on the island of Spiekeroog, Germany. Sachs is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ATTAC.
Furthermore, he is the principal author of Fair Future: Resource Conflicts, Security and Global Justice and Sustainable Germany in a Globalized World, both major studies produced by the Wuppertal Institute. Sachs is also a member of the Club of Rome, a lecturer at Schumacher College and a Honorary Professor at the University of Kassel, Germany.

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The question ‘How much is enough?’ leads without much detour to the question ‘What do we want?’ Sustainability in the last instance springs from a fresh inquiry into the meaning of the good life."

Some interesting essays on justice and environmentalism that have held up in time.

[Joakim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of the trends and misconceptions in sustainable development research.

[Aulin]

Good book for start thinking in a different way.