Category: Globalization

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Lines we draw

tl;dr: Borders are human-made. They separate and protect, but their true potential lies in their permeability. Rigid borders lead to stagnation, flexible borders create change and exchange. The challenge: question boundaries and cross them courageously.

Borders structure our world. They create order, provide orientation and separate one thing from another. But borders are not natural. They are man-made constructions, resulting from historical, social and political processes–they are the lines we draw, as Donnella Meadows once wrote.… Read more

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In Search For Meaning: The Real Challenges for the World Economic Forum 2019

tl;dr: Globalization needs new meanings beyond economic growth

This year’s World Economic Forum catchphrase is ”Globalization 4.0“ and focuses on a ”New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution“. The discussions this year will not be affirmative of new technologies and optimistic about new economic opportunities. Rather a very concerned view on the new global realities dominates, especially but not exclusively:

  • the rise of Neo-Nationalism and the politics of isolation and confrontation, especially in the former globalization heartlands like the USA and UK, but also in emerging countries like Brazil and core European countries like Hungary and Poland;
  • the ongoing and accelerating human-made climate change that requires global cooperation for successful mitigation, not national isolation.
… Read more