Premium
A World after COVID‐19: Business as Usual, or Building Bolder and Better?
Author(s) -
Erdelen Walter R.,
Richardson Jacques G.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12904
Subject(s) - futurist , humanity , covid-19 , business as usual , stewardship (theology) , action (physics) , process (computing) , call to action , population , neoclassical economics , economics , key (lock) , environmental ethics , law and economics , sociology , positive economics , political science , business , law , computer science , marketing , social science , philosophy , medicine , computer security , pathology , operating system , quantum mechanics , physics , demography , disease , politics , infectious disease (medical specialty)
The authors propose a holistic approach to life and living after the coronavirus crisis of 2020 has become history. Their method is to postulate studied reconsideration of the true needs of the human species, new know‐how for all, novel codes of behavior, and drastic change to how we treat nature. Their findings name humanity's ballooning population as problem Number One. Without reverting to former ways, we need to apply our imagination to sound demographic principles, accept modest economic growth, and create much better stewardship of nature. Stated in terms of the futurist, a Great Acceleration should give way to a process we might call the Great Deceleration of humanity's tempo of life and mode of action. Readers are encouraged to eschew all thought of continuing with ‘business as usual’. A purposeful limitation is the absence of all encouragement towards regrowth of wasteful manufacture and commerce. A systemic shift towards circular and green economies should be a key advance in all business revival. Another mode of being awaits; success of the encounter depends on humankind, not on theory.