Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the publication on September 20th 2005 of:
About Time
Speed, Society, People and the Environment
Edited by Tim Aldrich, Forum for the Future, UK
September 2005 | 160pp | 210 x 148 mm
Paperback: ISBN 1 874719 91 8 | GBP16.95 USD35.00
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To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to view the
Introduction online,
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/abttime.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
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WHERE DOES all the time go?
Despite the burgeoning army of machines designed to save us time -
from cars and aeroplanes to dishwashers and microwaves - we don’t seem
to have any more of it on our hands. We simply fill the space we clear
with more things to do - consuming more, spending more - and then look
around for new ways of saving time. And so we spiral onwards, upwards,
ever faster. Being busy has become a habit, and a habit that gives us
high status - busy people are important people. The business of
business is busy-ness. We are moving from a world in which the big eats
the small, to a world where the fast eats the slow.
But the fallout from a society hooked on speed is everywhere. It's
affecting our health: 60 per cent of the adult population in the UK
report that they suffer from stress, and more than half of these say
that this has worsened over the last 12 months. It's affecting our
family life, with a quarter of British families sharing a meal together
only once a month. And it affects our environment too: air travel is a
major source of carbon dioxide emissions, accelerating climate change
as we speed around the world. And the faster we live, the faster we
consume, the faster we waste energy and the faster we pollute the
planet. The faster we seem to be running out of time. Is there
something fundamentally wrong with the structure and values of this
high-speed society? What are we running from and what are we running
towards?
Sustainable development is all about time. It's about trying to
safeguard the health of the planet, and the people it supports,
indefinitely, unconstrained by time. The idea of time offers a novel
perspective on what sustainable development is all about. Looking at
issues affecting society and the environment through the prism of time
conveys the urgency of the challenge and leads us to solutions we might
not have thought of before.
About Time, edited by the think-tank Forum for the Future, brings
together ten of the world's leading thinkers and writers, including
Will Hutton, Baroness Mary Warnock, Sir Martin Rees, Ghillean Prance,
Jay Griffiths (the author of the bestselling Pip Pip) and Jonathon
Porritt from disciplines including biology, business, sociology,
ethnography, astronomy, philosophy, politics, history and
sustainability in a collection of intriguing essays exploring the issue
of time and how it relates to the environment, economy and society. The
first half of this collection looks at different dimensions of time —
from the history of time as a social phenomenon and cultural notions of
time to cosmological time and the difference between human and machine
time. These ‘think-pieces’ are followed by a series of more practical,
solutions-oriented contributions, looking at how we deal with time in
different contexts — from the slow food movement and time banks to
long-term thinking in politics and what we can individually do to cope
with the speed society. Contributions are liberally interspersed with
boxes and brief pieces offering bite-sized facts, figures and insights
relating to time and our everyday lives.
About Time is a high-profile collection aimed at creating debate about
where the values of our contemporary society are taking us. It will
foster reflective thinking about different aspects of time, using the
concept of time to communicate and illuminate the idea of sustainable
development and question our idolatry of speed. In doing so, it aims to
inspire and help decision-makers in business, government and elsewhere
to appreciate the challenges of sustainable development, and inspire
individuals to create change in their own lives.
For readers of No Logo and Longitude, this book provides a
thought-provoking twist, bringing together time and sustainability in a
refreshing, provocative and accessible way.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Tim Aldrich and Mireille Kaiser
1. Perspectives on Time
Sir Martin Rees
2. Natural Clocks
Sir Ghillean Prance
3. Too Many, Too Fast?
Jonathon Porritt
4. Living Time
Jay Griffiths
5. The Arrival of Time Politics
Geoff Mulgan
6. Time and Money
Will Hutton and Alexandra Jones
7. Taking People’s Time Seriously
David Boyle
8. Ethics in Time
Baroness Mary Warnock
9. Time and Technology
James Goodman and Britt Jorgensen
10. Conclusion
Vidhya Alakeson
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To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to view the
Introduction online,
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/abttime.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
*********************************
Alternatively, please contact:
Jayney Bown
Greenleaf Publishing Ltd
Aizlewood Business Centre
Aizlewood's Mill
Nursery Street
Sheffield S3 8GG
UK
+44 (0)114 282 3475 - Telephone
+44 (0)114 282 3476 - Fax
sales@greenleaf-publishing.com
Best Wishes
John Stuart
Greenleaf Publishing,
Aizlewood Business Centre,
Aizlewood's Mill,
Nursery Street,
Sheffield S3 8GG
UK
Tel: +44 114 2823475
Fax: +44 114 2823476
E-mail:
john.stuart@greenleaf-publishing.com
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com