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Article
Publication date: 21 September 2020

Jacques G. Richardson and Walter R. Erdelen

This study aims to assess progress toward achieving international (United Nations’) goals and targets for attaining sustainable development and discuss the risks of worldwide…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to assess progress toward achieving international (United Nations’) goals and targets for attaining sustainable development and discuss the risks of worldwide failure.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors highlight the relationship between global goals/targets and governance, relate this to the concept of sustainable development, outline and compare Millennium Development Goals and their successors, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and lastly view SDG implementation from two major spaces i.e. the governance and science space, respectively.

Findings

Governance and culture as new components of sustainable development may be sine qua non for humanity’s transformative action toward global and just sustainable development. Through fostering informed decision and policymaking, modern science, as sketched in this contribution, should provide the framework for realizing Agenda 2030. Earth System Science and its innovative notions such as the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, tipping points and tipping elements will be key in the process of “designing” blank a sustainable future of and for Homo sapiens.

Originality/value

This essay proposes developing holistic approaches to cooperate at all levels in urgent efforts to meet goals projected for 2030 and 2050. The complexity and functioning of the governance space, comprising a system of governance systems, is illustrated not only in the diversity of the institutional landscape but in particular through the blurring of all scales – local to global.

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2023

Walter R. Erdelen, Jacques G. Richardson and Moneef R. Zou’bi

This study aims to propose an approach towards reducing differences between national economies and living standards existing between the world’s wealthiest and least affluent…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to propose an approach towards reducing differences between national economies and living standards existing between the world’s wealthiest and least affluent nations.

Design/methodology/approach

A systemic review identifies the impeding purpose as proposed above: an entirely new initiative.

Findings

The efforts recommended are vital for preserving the human species and ensuring the integrity of our planet. For both the future of the human species and the planet itself, it is essential to reduce the divide between wealthy and poor. Now is the time to give force to the types of implementation necessary to meet these combined goals.

Research limitations/implications

This essay avoids dissecting problems of current geopolitical and ideological character. Despite their sometimes contentious nature, they are often reduced by intelligent diplomacy.

Originality/value

The study proposes a holistic approach to bridging the North-South divide.

Article
Publication date: 5 November 2019

Walter R. Erdelen and Jacques G. Richardson

This paper aims to discuss the history of human migration till the present day.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the history of human migration till the present day.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyze the human movement from pre-hominid times, forming patterns of existence. Thus, ambient sun and water, weather and climate extremes, shelter, food supply, natural or human-made disasters gave rise to Homo sapiens’ wanderlust.

Findings

Despite obstacles, formidable barriers and even perilous deterrents, the species explored and exploited new soils and waters, whether beneficial or destructive of nature’s ample providence.

Originality/value

The authors treat societal as well as individual action, cultural behavior and the emergence of economic anthropology. Migratory legislation and regulation now risk transformation into resentment and then xenophobia.

Details

foresight, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2018

Jacques G. Richardson and Walter Rudolf Erdelen

Specific examples or brief case-histories in different fields or disciplines illustrate the inventive process from conception to realization.

Abstract

Purpose

Specific examples or brief case-histories in different fields or disciplines illustrate the inventive process from conception to realization.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine predictions made in 2007 by “China experts” about what the Chinese business environment would look like in 2017. Their predictions were accurate in respect of around two-thirds of the issues they were asked to consider. The authors focus on the one-third of issues about which they were wide of the mark and examine the likely reasons.

Findings

The newly named Anthropocene is a time of increasing conception, research, design, development, evaluation and exploitation of new artifacts and services. Objectivity: careful problem-analysis assures the authors’ understanding of innovating pathways.

Research limitations/implications

Trial-and-error methods may be disorderly, log-type research records are not kept, accidents not considered relevant.

Originality/value

Examples cited are transdisciplinary, often requiring inputs from other economic or cultural sectors. These complexities should be of incalculable value to innovators with single-field backgrounds.

Details

foresight, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

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