Opinion | Climate change, inequality and financial crises show the old order is changing – but into what?
Andrew Sheng says that there is broad agreement that a global order marred by inequality, dangerous climate developments and financial crises must change, but even panels of experts cannot produce a consensus on the shape it will take next
Ideologically, liberals opt for soft options, while conservatives offer hard choices, often at others’ expense.
Indeed, the discourse on social change has moved from polite conversation to heated debate and, in many societies, outright civil war and now geopolitical conflict. It is precisely because the world has never been richer and yet more unequal that makes the debate so confrontational. The divide is not just digital, but also generational, ideological and cultural, along ethnic, religious and identity lines.
This report suggests that social scientists have become more open to humanity-based and dialectical systems-thinking, recognising deep contradictions in all human societies and ecological systems. The panel sees the underlying contradiction of development as “poverty among plenty, individual advancement versus collective regression, and repression intertwined with liberty”.