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What is to be done : political engagement and saving the planet / Barry Jones.

What is to be done : political engagement and saving the planet / Barry Jones.
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781925849912
Author Jones, Barry, 1932- (author)
Title What is to be done : political engagement and saving the planet / Barry Jones.
Publisher and/or associated date/s Melbourne : Scribe, 2020.
©2020.
Description xiv, 386 pages : charts ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary A follow-up to the author’s prescient bestseller, first published in 1982, that alerted the public to the likely impacts of information technologies and the emergence of a post-industrial society. When Sleepers, Wake! was released in Australia, it immediately became influential around the world: it was read by Deng Xiaoping and Bill Gates; was published in China, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden; and led to the author being the first Australian minister invited to address a G-7 summit meeting, held in Canada in 1985. Now its author, the polymath and former politician Barry Jones, turns his attention to what has happened since — especially to politics, health, and our climate in the digital age — and to the challenges faced by increasingly fragile democracies and public institutions. Jones sees climate change as the greatest problem of our time, but political leaders have proved incapable of dealing with complex, long-term issues of such magnitude. The Trump phenomenon overturns the whole concept of critical thinking and analysis. Meanwhile, technologies such as the smartphone and the ubiquity of social media have reinforced the realm of the personal. This has weakened our sense of, or empathy with, ‘the other’, the remote, and the unfamiliar, and all but destroyed our sense of community, of being members of broad, inclusive groups. The COVID-19 threat, which was immediate, and personal, showed that some leaders could respond courageously, while others denied the evidence. In the post-truth era, politicians invent ‘facts’ and ignore or deny the obvious, while business and the media are obsessed with marketing and consumption for the short term. What Is to Be Done is a long-awaited work from Jones on the challenges of modernity and what must be done to meet them.
Subjects Social change
Technology -- Social aspects
Populism
Climatic changes -- Political aspects
Climate change mitigation
Democracy and environmentalism
Democracy
Communication in politics -- Technological innovations
Internet -- Political aspects
Digital media -- Political aspects
Social media -- Political aspects
Call number 2020.334
Catalogue Information 100076252 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 100076252 Top of page .
Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date
9781925849912 2020.334
General Collection   . Available to Museum Staff .  
. Catalogue Record 100076252 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 100076252 ItemInfo Top of page .