*** EDGAR MORIN: La Voie. Pour l'avenir de l'humanité. Librairie Arthème Fayard (13 rue de Montparnasse, F-75006 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45498200 - Internet: http://www.editions-fayard.fr ). 2011, 308 pp. €19. ISBN 978-2-213-65560-4.
Every year, since the 1990s, Edgar Morin is increasingly convinced that,“ the planet Earth spaceship is being propelled by four engines that cannot be controlled: science, technology, economy and profit and which are dragging it towards a very probable chain reaction of disasters. The fact that this is probable, does not mean that this disaster is unavoidable and does not exclude a change of direction”. This hypothesis is therefore the basis of this extraordinary book, in which this sociologist and philosopher (who will soon be 90 years old) seeks to identify a myriad of possible reforms that could help facilitate the way forward and save humanity from the disasters threatening it. In the introductory chapter, the author explains that, “denunciation is not enough we need to see what we can do”. In the four parts of this book, the position of this inter-disciplinary thinker (who is not subject to any intellectually structured straitjacket) subsequently opens himself up to the accusation of arrogance or intellectual utopianism. Nonetheless, the ideas that he expresses are neither arrogant nor utopian, simply the concerns of a very wise man, “focusing on our planet's heritage, bolstered by a religion of what brings us together and a rejection of rejection”. The ultimate hope encapsulated in this philosophy advocated by this militant utopian enthusiasm, can be summed up in the following quotation, “even if the Titanic sank, perhaps a bottle thrown into the sea will one day reach the shore of a world where everything can be begun again”.
In his introductory chapter, the father of “complex thought” begins by sketching out the décor, that of globalisation born after the collapse of the so-called socialist economies (globalisation in fact began in the 15th century) and which has produced, “the infra-texture of a world society” but has failed to provide the means to control its economy or to develop, “the consciousness of a community whose destiny is indispensable for the society to become a World Country”. Globalisation has suddenly found itself engulfed by a multifaceted crisis. This initially takes the form of a crisis in, “ global technical and economic unification” insofar as there is a, “coincidence between the proliferation of sovereign states, their increasing interdependency and there ethno-religious closing up”, which can only be explained away by the “generalised disappearance of hope in progress” and the “great providential myth of the West”. There are also the “poly crises” involving the crisis of the world economy, ecological crisis, a crisis in Western civilisation (“the selfish effects of individualism that are destroying ancient forms of solidarity. A psychic and moral malaise is now present at the heart of material well-being”, according to the diagnosis provided by Morin), the demographic crisis, the urban crisis, rural crisis (with desertification mainly provoked by, “the extension of industrial monocultures. The use of pesticides… as well as the trend of industrialised farming techniques and the concentration and producing of foodstuffs degraded by hormones and antibiotics), the political crisis, “intensified by the incapacity to think and confront new challenges and the scale and complexity of different problems”. There is also, above all, the crisis of “technological and economic development, this locomotive that is supposed to bring with it, carriages containing well-being, social harmony and democracy” but what do in fact Chinese workers and democrats think about it? Its main shortcoming, according to Edgar Morin, is to have growth as its infallible driving force. In this context, the author quotes the economist Kenneth Boulding who said that, “ if one thinks that exponential growth can last for ever in a world that is finished, he is either mad or an economist”. Given that the author is neither one nor the other, he advocates replacing, “ the static idea of growth… with a complex including different kinds of growth, a diversity of periods when there is no growth, in addition to diverse periods of stabilisation”. The author also calls for the damage caused by, “unbridled global capitalism” to be addressed because it has allowed for, “a neoliberal globalisation (privatisation of public services and state enterprise, to the detriment of public activities and benefit of private operators, the prerogative of international speculative investment and systemic”. He also calls for and end to the formatted kind of education produced by this “development”, when, “hyper-specialised education replaces the old kind of ignorance with a new kind of blindness” and the development of an idea that calculation is a kind of instrument of knowledge with its statistics that are supposed to measure everything. This calculation does in fact leave out non-monetary activities, services providing mutual aid or the provision of commonly held resources. Above all, this calculation cannot measure happiness, love, suffering, dignity or in other words, the very fabric of our lives.
These problems contained in the introduction alone are only half of the issues, which this author seeks to address. Therefore, although the “global crisis” behind globalisation, westernisation and development is nothing other than (according to Morin), “the crisis of humanity which is failing to reach humanity” and which is leading to, “a crucial moment in a mad adventure began 1000 years ago…” The author also sees this crisis as “an intensification in the formidable struggle between the forces of life-and-death”. Everything is now pushing towards, “the abyss”, which is a probable outcome. It is not, however, unavoidable because this time, “mortal threats and fundamental problems create a community of destiny for the whole of humanity”. Has the time therefore come for us to overcome our differences through what Morin describes as, “the metamorphosis”? Perhaps, as long as minorities and those marginalised by society, such as Jesus, Paul of Tarsus, Mohammed, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Bacon and Descartes, rise up and change the way ahead. If these minorities and the people left on the margins of society demonstrate and succeed in their enterprise, we can truly consider that Morin has been, with this prodigious book, their prophet and advocate.
Michel Theys
*** PHILIPPE ASKENAZY, THOMAS COUTROT, ANDRE ORLEAN, HENRI STERDYNIAK (editors): Manifeste d'économistes atterrés. Crise et dettes en Europe: 10 fausses évidences, 22 mesures en débat pour sortir de l'impasse. Editions Les Liens qui Libèrent (2 Impasse Conti, F-75006 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43291039 - Internet: http://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr ). 2010, 70 p. €50 (France). ISBN 978-2-918597-26-1.
This manifesto had already been signed by more than 700 French economists by the end of last year. They came from a very diverse range of theoretical disciplines. This Manifesto is a warning and a call to arms. It is the product of a number of individuals who consider that the economic and financial crisis that has swept the world since 2007, “requires a revision in economic thought”. These individuals are not resigned to see neoliberal orthodoxy reaffirmed, particularly in the European institutions. This book is written very clearly and attacks what they consider as fabricated evidence that is scientifically flawed and used to, “justify policies currently being carried out in Europe”. They propose 22 ideas for an alternative economic and social strategy. The fabricated evidence they denounce is constituted in the claimed efficiency of the financial markets and the claim that these markets help economic growth or are the appropriate judges of “state solvency”. The authors also demolish the claim that spiralling public debt is the result of excessive spending and that it is therefore necessary to reduce expenditure to reduce public debt (“a simultaneous and massive reduction in public spending for Union countries can only lead to deeper recession and the subsequent burgeoning of public debt”, they warn), if public debt is not going to lead to a hike in prices for future generations. They also refute the claim that financial markets require reassurance if they are going to refinance public debt. The authors of this Manifesto also react ferociously when Community Europe is in the firing line. They say that it is false to believe that the Union is defending the European social model and that, “the dominant vision in Brussels at the moment and within most national governments is that liberal Europe must adapt European societies to the demands of globalisation”, to the extent that European construction has become, “a means to impose neoliberal reforms on the European people”. Similarly, they consider that the euro is not a shield against the crisis because the single currency generated a levelling down of social conditions by making workers shoulder the burden of all these adjustments. The authors of the manifesto consider that the Greek crisis did not allow for any progress to be made towards, “economic government or real solidarity” and that if there was any real advance in this sense it was towards, “a government which, instead of loosening the grip of finance, will impose austerity and deepen structural reforms to the detriment of social solidarity in each country and between each of the different countries”. In an effort to counter this trend, they propose the development of a European fiscal policy and a genuine European budget. They make a number of criticisms and suggestions in an effort to help European citizens understand that there are other alternatives available to them and it is up to them and not the “experts” to make choices affecting them in the 27 member states of the European Union.
(MT)
*** BERNHARD SELIGER, JÜRI SEPP, RALPH WROBEL: Das Konzept der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft und seine Anwendung. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 -Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Europäische Hochschulschriften" series. 2009, 314 p., 46,50 €. ISBN 978-3-631-58772-0.
Following on from a conference held at the Zwickau further education institute in November 2007, this book examines the social market economy and its application in Germany in particular, although several chapters look at countries elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the world. Pointing out that Germany is very present in the world economy but the same does not apply to its social values, the essays feed into a debate that has been running for several years now in Germany and the rest of the European Union. Although the EU has for decades been trying to catch up with leading economies like the United States, many commentators say that the EU's lack of competitiveness is due to its social welfare system. The book's authors examine this impression in an analytical and comparative manner, attempting to verify its validity. The situation in Germany is described in depth in the first two sections of the book before transition economies are described in this connection. The Baltic States are examined, along with countries in South-East Asia, which are experiencing a second wave of economic development. The book contains a very interesting article on the economy of Kosovo under the aegis of the EU and the United Nations and there is a lengthy theoretical analysis of economic competitiveness at global level.
(JD)
*** GEORGE CHOBANOV, JURGEN PLOHN, HORST SCHELLHAASS (Eds,): Policies of Economic and Social Development in Europe. Peter Lang (see above). "Sofia Conferences on Social and Economic Development in Europe" series, No. 2. 2010, 200 pp, € 41.90. ISBN 978-3-631-60412-0.
This book reports on the eleventh conference organised by the economics faculty of Sofia University to celebrate the university's one hundred and twentieth anniversary. The sixteen essays by nineteen scientists from six countries (Germany, Bulgaria, France, Romania, Russia and Switzerland) are divided into four sections. The first sees Prof. Jean-Pierre Gern of Neuchâtel University draw up a critical balance sheet of the concept of sustainable development, along with other essays. The second section focusses on Eastern Europe and their currency crises, while the third looks at South-Eastern Europe with essays on, for example, the state of the banking industry in Romania and an examination of Bulgaria from three separate viewpoints. The fourth section comprises three essays, two of them examining the difficult budget situation and the state of social services and healthcare in the European Union and one looking at people moving from unemployment to self-employment in Germany.
(PBo)
*** SEBASTIAN VOLLMER: A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic and Human Development. Peter Lang (see above). "Göttinger Studien zur Entwicklungsökonomik / Göttingen Studies in Development Economics" series, No. 27. 2009, 139 pp, €35-30. ISBN 978-3-631-58793-5.
The author is an economist and mathematician who has written a book about economic and human development that is clearly aimed at experts. He starts by examining the division of global income, examining changes in time and how this is likely to impact on poverty reduction. He also looks at the impact of changes in global income levels in terms of well-being expected to be generated by the Economic Partnership Agreements recently signed by the European Union with Africa, before examining whether democracy encourages better healthcare and education.
(PBo)
*** MICHEL HERBILLON, CHRISTOPHE CARESCHE: Pour un gouvernement économique européen. Commission des Affaires européennes de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Documents d'Information" series, No. 2922. 2010, 53 pp, €3-50. ISBN 978-2-11-128352-7.
In this newsletter, two French parliamentarians examine efforts to introduce economic governance in the European Union. They examine what they describe as encouraging developments, along with uncertainty and shortcomings and the approach to be taken in the future. They say that Europe is going in the right direction.
(MT)