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The multiple directions of social progress: ways forward

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posted on 2023-06-09, 14:40 authored by Erik Olin Wright, Nancy Folbre, Jenny Andersson, Jeff Hearn, Susan Himmelweit, Andrew StirlingAndrew Stirling
This chapter engages with three important themes of the larger report: the meaning of progress, its uneven nature, and obstacles to future progress. It also considers a number of political and economic alternatives aimed to overcome these obstacles, emphasizing the need for diverse strategies, open-minded experimentation, and scientific assessment. While it may be impossible to ever reach agreement, the effort to calibrate different interpretations of progress remains an important exercise for political deliberation about how to make the world a better place. The very hope of moving forward implies some agreement on a destination. All of us must take responsibility for the future. Our discussion emphasizes the complexity and multidimensionality of the interpretive debate, but also calls attention to its ideological character. Social actors-individuals, groups, and even academic disciplines-tend to define progress in ways that serve their own interests. In a way, distributional conflict undermines our very efforts to better understand and mediate such conflict. The uneven character of progress is manifest in many different domains. Increases in the global reach of formally democratic institutions have been accompanied by growing concerns about their stability, efficacy, and consistency with democratic ideals.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Volume

3

Page range

815-846

Pages

896.0

Book title

Rethinking society for the 21st Century: report of the International Panel on Social Progress

Place of publication

Cambridge

ISBN

9781108423144

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

IPSP International Panel on Social Progress

Legacy Posted Date

2018-08-23

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-01-29

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-08-20

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