Reviews for Philosophy gone wild

The average rating for Philosophy gone wild based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-15 00:00:00 Andre Pierre Panarchies and the Network of Human Settlements Panarchy describes a cycle of a complex system where it first grows (r), then becomes conservative (K), eventually collapses (W), and reorganizes (a) to grow again in another period. During this cycle, the system's two properties, connectedness and potential, change simultaneously as it shift from one phrase to another. This periodic process have been found in both ecological and social systems. Using the conceptual framework of panarchy (Gunderson and Holling, 2002), we can review the crystallizations and evolutions of human settlements (Mumford, 1961) from a different perspective. Human settlements are the spatial manifestations of human connections. Settlements grow as human society seeks higher degree of connectedness. At the hunting-gathering epoch, a tribe established connections and lived together in caves. The settlements were still scattered across the geographic regions. After entering the agricultural epoch, people were connected at larger scale and started to formed villages, cities, or even kingdoms. Within a kingdom, the settlements were connected into a hierarchical structure. After industrial revolution, countries around the world started to connect together into a bipolar network. On one hand, the colonies maintain the previous hierarchical structure and only connect to their colonial master countries, exporting natural resources and labors. On the other hand, the western countries started to establish a mutually connected network that conduces more complicated industrial chains. Into the globalization epoch, colonies gained independent and received the industrial manufacturing lines, while the cities in developed countries shifted toward services-oriented economies. During each epoch, as a society becomes more connected, the cost to maintain its complexity goes up, until it eventually exceeds the benefits from higher connectedness and leads to a collapse (Tainter, 1990). After collapse, resources in the society becomes available again for it to reorganize and regrow into another panarchy cycle. This cycle is common is every epoch: tribes fight each other for space and resources; rebellions overthrow kingdoms; colonies fight for independence and western countries start wold-wars, and so on. However, if new technologies or new social organizations become available, it is possible for societies to jump out of this cycle, and establish a new paradigm of connection at a larger scale. With higher degree of connectedness at larger scale, resources can be traded and costs can be outsourced, in order to avoid collapse at the smaller scale. Each settlement can depend on wider range of resources, and thus become more resilience (Adger, 2000). For instance, after tribes evolve into villages or cities, and then connect into a kingdom, the central regime can coordinate the flows of resources among different regions, helping them to survive resource depletions or extreme climatic conditions. After western countries industrialize and establish oversea colonies and industrial chains, they can rely on not only domestic resources but also foreign ones. As can be seen from different epochs, connections at larger scale can enhance the resilience of each region at smaller scale, and thus enables the connectedness and complexity to rise to a higher level. Nowadays, the process of globalization is pushing our global society toward a fully connected network. Based on the logic discussed above, every region of the globe should be more resilient than before. However, there are several concerns or questions about this new paradigm: 1. The costs of maintaining a global complex network also increase. If the costs exceed the benefits at the global scale, it will lead to a global collapse. At this time, there is no another higher level of connectedness for us to evolve to, after another collapse. 2. Some costs and ecological services are nontransferable. Those costs include air pollution from congested traffic and lack of space due to over-crowded population. 3. Exchange of resources are mainly based on short-term market values, rather than long-term ecological values. The increased resilience from higher connectedness is based on the transfers of resources from more ecologically sensitive regions to those less sensitive ones. However, if these transfers are driven by economic incentives rather than aiming to reduce ecological costs, the redistribution of resources in the global network cannot increase resilience. Adaptive governance at different scales, both regional and global, are required, in order to adjust the transfers of resources. 4. Extreme events under climate change may undermine the infrastructures for transferring costs. The regional scale of transfer depends on roads and railways, while the global scale of transfer heavily rely on shipping (90% of world trade is carried by international shipping industry). Climate change increases crisis in coastal regions and undermine transfer at global level. References: Gunderson, Lance H. Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island press, 2001. Mumford, Lewis. The City in history. Its origins, its transformation, and its prospects. 1961. Tainter, Joseph. The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge University Press, 1990. Adger, W. Neil. "Social and ecological resilience: are they related?." Progress in human geography 24.3 (2000): 347-364.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-08-12 00:00:00 Thomas Haney I heard co-author Gunderson speak at the Quivira Coalition meeting in Albuquerque and I was sold on this concept of panarchy and dynamic systems theory. Not a quick read, but a deep one, and the insights apply everywhere.