Customer Reviews

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• Robert Hall

  While some authors write about the demise of globalisation (for example, Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World by Elisabeth Braw), Peter Ellyard takes a different tact in The Future Knowledge Compendium. His view is much more optimistic, perhaps overly optimistic at times, offering a world of greater interdependence and harmony – a liveable global village – by 2050. To achieve this, he foretells of the end of the ‘Modernist popular movement and the remaining Modernist autocrats’ by 2035. That’s an ambitious, probably welcome, prediction in a relatively short historical timeframe. The notion of ‘Planetism’, a development of postmodernism, is the book’s central thesis. A new era of non-exploitive form of globalisation based on mutual benefit and win/win is emerging, it is argued. It would be good to think that ‘We are being forced to act collaboratively in the interests of all humanity’. Yet, there seems to be a global drag on this honourable sentiment that questions whether the 21st century will truly be ‘the century of interdependence’. The author believes that while tensions between those who strive for global integration and those who resist it ‘are likely to produce conflict for a while''...'most of these issues will be resolved within two decades at most’. This is optimistic talk. Mention of ‘Planetary Pariah Punishments’ for those leaders who do not match up to the challenge (Trump, Putin) will certainly be hard to enact, as will the recognition that ‘national politics will need to obey new emerging global political rules and agreements'—global g governance is a hard sell. ‘Extreme views of all kinds will decline’ is wishful thinking. ‘As for involuntary migration (refugees), there are reasons to believe this will first slow and then end in the mid-21st century’: evidence awaits. While we can all be hopeful, we should also be realistic; the author prefers ‘utopian realism’. Claims that ‘the Chinese government has avoided a too-hostile repression of dissident students in Hong Kong’ and that ‘the democratic transformation process [in China] will be largely completed by 2050’ or ‘the government of Afghanistan will ultimately evolve into a somewhat more autocratic version of a democratic Pakistan’ are ones to which perhaps only a futurist is entitled. The author recommends a curriculum and set of tools (69 concepts and tools in all) to help anyone create success for themselves in the future. He believes that the book is ‘possibly the first time anybody has attempted to create anything like an integrated curriculum for understanding the 21st century and thriving in it’. It is a justifiable tour de force of what is required: the question is can anyone implement the comprehensive toolkit in whole or large part. An academy is proposed as a network to help develop future knowledge. Most of the chapters of the book are devoted to exploring a self-knowledge industry to help shape the rest of this century. discussion of tools for six future-shaping tools (management, leadership, planning, design, innovation, and learning) led to many interesting and worthwhile points. The ‘Six Pillars of Liveability’ (prosperous, harmonious, inclusive, sustainable, healthy, and secure) are perhaps self-evident. The chapter of ‘Reimagining Sustainability’ mentions resilience without reflecting on the difference in terminology. The chapter on education and learning introduces ‘The Seven Modes of 21st century Learning', which is a valuable contribution to this important aspect. As if to nail his colours firmly to the mast of globalisation, the author concludes that ‘Globalization is the biggest economic prosperity-uplifting machine that has ever been created.’ This is a ringing rebuke to those who think it is ending. He quotes Nelson Mandela, who believed ‘humanity must globalise responsibility to ensure it avoids creating islands of plenty in seas of poverty.’ The book is an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

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