SUSTAINABLE FUTURES BOOK OFFERS NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND POVERTY

The book Sustainable Futures: Replacing Growth Imperative and Hierarchies with
Sustainable Ways presents the results of a worldwide search for sustainable
cultures: past, present and future. Focus is on environmental sustainability
and human dignity of all.

The editors, Marko Ulvila and Jarna Pasanen, take an innovate look at the
dynamics of environmental problems from a cultural class perspective. They
define three cultural classes – over-consuming, sustainable and struggling –
and describe different future scenarios for each of them. For the over-
consuming class degrowth, intentional contraction of economy, is suggested.

Another main point by the authors is that hierarchic structures are a common
cause for environmental destruction and undermining of human dignity. They
call for maximum equality in all spheres of life, be it economy, gender
system, ethic relations, knowledge or relationship with other species.

The book stems from a research project that conducted dialogue workshops on
sustainable futures in South Asia, East Africa and Europe. The study was
commissioned and published by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Sustainable Futures book also contains a selection of commentary from the
eleven international dialogue workshops, as well as summaries or excerpts from
articles commissioned by the project. Authors include Petra Bakewell-Stone,
Mamata Dash, Hilkka Pietilä, Vijay Pratap, Ritu Priya, Sebastian Rodrigues and
Olli Tammilehto.

Oras Tynkkynen, a green MP in Finland, comments the work in the preface: ”Many
of the proposals the authors come up with merit further debate and analysis.
While some of the suggestions may seem outlandish at first, measures of this
and perhaps even greater magnitude are required to meet our daunting
challenges.”

A free pdf copy of the book can be downloaded from
http://www.sustainablefutures.fi/.

The Ministry also sends free print copies
upon a request to keoinfo@formin.fi.

More information: http://www.sustainablefutures.fi/
jarna.pasanen@kaapeli.fi,
marko.ulvila@kaapeli.fi