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Gary J.

An extraordinary perspective on the place of environmental destruction in ...

Beoordeeld in Canada 🇨🇦 op 16 januari 2017

Geverifieerde aankoop

An extraordinary perspective on the place of environmental destruction in post-modern society. Beck says it is here and a necessary ingredient in the neo-liberal economic paradigm - Environmental destruction is part of our way of doing business, eg oil. What then are we to do?

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Russell Fanelli

A difficult and demanding work that challenges us to answer the question: What world are we actually living in?

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 5 juni 2016

Sadly, the German sociologist Ulrich Beck died on January 1, 2015, before he could finish his new book, The Metamorphosis of the World. In the Forward of the book, his wife Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim, a noted sociologist in her own right, says that she had enough of her husband's notes and with help from colleagues and editors was able to complete Beck’s important work.

For my readers it is important to note that The Metamorphosis of the World is a scholarly work a general audience will find challenging to read. That is not to say that I don’t recommend it for a general audience, for Beck gives us enough help to understand the complicated problems involved in rethinking change in the modern world, particularly change brought about by climate change. This is a difficult and demanding work that requires close and careful attention.

Beck does not leave us in doubt about his mission and purpose. He tells us immediately that “The world is unhinged…. And it has gone mad.” He asks the question, “What world are we actually living in?” His answer is: “in the metamorphosis of the world.”

When most of my readers think of metamorphosis, the lowly caterpillar turning into the magnificent butterfly is what immediately comes to mind. Perhaps more appropriate for Beck’s book is the transformation of Gregor Samsa from a human being into a bug in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. One thing is certain; we can expect Beck to show us that we can expect changes in our world that will astonish us as much as a caterpillar turning into a butterfly or Gregor Samsa turning into a bug. For example he states that “In fact, in times of climate change, those who just want to breathe local air will suffocate.” He also states that “Those who eat only locally will starve.”

Beck summarizes his ideas nicely for us when he says, “In sum, metamorphosis is not social change, not evolution, not revolution and not crisis. It is a mode of changing the nature of human existence. It signifies the age of side effects. It challenges our way of being in the world.”

This is heady stuff, exciting, but not rash or impetuous. A few chapter titles should give my readers a good idea about what to expect from Beck. In his chapter “Being God,” Beck reminds us how far we have come when we consider test tube babies and “the ever more extensive manufacturability of human life.” Have we already arrived at a Brave New World? I think Beck would argue “Yes.” In the chapter on How Climate Change Might Save the World Beck says that “Climate change is creating existential moments of decision. This happens unintended, unseen, unwanted and is neither goal-oriented nor ideologically driven.” Beck does not believe these changes should signal the apocalypse, but the chance to engineer “future structures, norms, and beginnings.”

The first audience for this book will be scholars at the university who want to understand Ulrich Beck’s last thoughts about the remarkable changes occurring globally in the 21st Century. Ambitious general readers who don’t mind intellectual challenge may also find this book thought provoking and rewarding, although I don’t think we will find it on the best seller list any time soon. Recommended with noted reservations.

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julesinrose

Thought provoking

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 7 juli 2016

First, let me preface this with the fact that I am not an academe. I found this book rough going and could only read it in small bits, mulling it over, wondering if I'd missed the point, and going back. And I'm not really done; there's so much food for thought here, and whole swathes of chapters that felt too opaque for this reader.

Yet. . . having never bern exposed to Beck's work before, I was at time nearly thrilled with the ideas. Some of the writing isn't so academic - it's nearly conversational - and it was refreshing in the extreme to read his point of view. We, outside of academia, are comfronted with quite stereotyped visions of this world we are living in. "Left wing," "right wing," "libertarian," etc. . . and nary a real thinker.

I agree with Beck that we are in a metamorphosis of the world. It is happening no matter what our personal opinions are. Though this book is tough for a non-academic, I recommend it to anyone who is not looking for answers, but to make sense of the seemingly senseless age we are living in. I will not synopse the book's ideas as others have and I have nothing to add. Dipping into this book is as refreshing as dipping one's toes into a cool stream in summer. This world needs some great thinkers;too bad they are mostly writing in academic obscurity (to us "regular folk") and/or have passed on.

I will add that I did not entirely agree with Beck's analysis (as I had a decidedly more Marxist point of view) but that did not stop me from finding this book thought provoking.

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sanoe.net

A good unexpectedness

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 31 juli 2016

Like many books of the Polity line, Ulrich Beck's "The Metamorphosis of the World" is for a fine tuned audience. One that knows the subject matter and the terminology. I like to take a chance on Polity books because when I do understand it, I feel enlightened; when I don't get it, well, I give myself a pat on the back for trying.

In this case, there were patches that flew past me, but there are stretches where I did sync up on Beck's ideas of a changing world with an interesting focus on how bad can be positive. I didn't expect that and I found it refreshing. On that aspect alone, I liked the book.

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Clarissa's Blog

Beck’s Last Book

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 7 juli 2016

The great German philosopher📃 Ulrich Beck died before completing this book. His wife and colleagues had to finish it based on the author’s notes and conversations. As a result, the book ended up being very repetitive. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. If I had to choose a book by Beck to introduce students to his thinking, I’d pick this one because its repetitiveness will help Beck’s ideas really to get across.

Since the collapse of the nation-state model is inevitable, should we drag it out in order to soften the impact or should we accept the inevitable and move on? Ulrich Beck insists that we have no time to waste because the longer we hang on to the illusion that the nation-state is salvageable, the more time we waste instead of solving the problems of the new world order. The most pressing problems of today – climate change, for instance- will only begin to be addressed when we relinquish the nation-state illusions.

Ulrich Beck’s posthumously published volume is an impassioned plea for us to stop hiding from the erosion of the nation-state model behind right-wing fundamentalism, ultra nationalism or vapid fantasies about bringing back the good old times and to start creating structures of action and collaboration that will transcend the porous national borders just as easily as floods, hurricanes, radioactive clouds, viruses and terrorists do. We can’t allow the agents of our risk to travel faster and lighter than we do.

[📃In Europe, Beck is known as a sociologist, just like Zygmunt Bauman. But a sociologist in Europe is nothing like the useless idiots who call themselves sociologists in the US. Beck and Bauman are the world’s leading thinkers, philosophers, theorists of the nation-state and not the kind of pseudo scholars you can find in American departments of social sciences.]

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TerraTerrain

I liked this book a lot but found it took me ...

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 18 juli 2016

I liked this book a lot but found it took me a while to finish, that being said I would still recommend it to all even if it isn't really written for the general public and can take some time to get into. This is more of an academic text, really an unfinished manuscript that was pieced together after the author's death, which makes it somewhat unique in that regard. I do always wonder if all of this is exactly as Beck would have wanted to publish since ideas do evolve so much before they reach the final work that you want to share with the public. I think he takes an interesting viewpoint on climate change and appreciate the insight this book provided.

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Bryan Newman

A lot deeper than I was hoping to get into the subject

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 27 juli 2016

This is a posthumous book from a German academic. It is dense, pedantic and rich in mind challenging philosophy. Basically everything I was not looking for in this book. I was looking for a far more mainstream book describing the changes of our world through climate change. I slogged through the first 30% of the book and had to abandon it, which is something I rarely do. I appreciate the level of thought and some of the passages. I often enjoy thought provoking books but just couldn't get into this.

The book is impressive, but beyond what I am looking for. Putting this review out there to make sure potential buyers know that they are getting into a deep and challenging read.

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R. A. Barricklow(Scaramouche)

I Found My Reading of The Metamorphosis of the World In Near Total Diagreement With The Author's.

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 5 juli 2016

This was a preliminary, unedited, and unfinished manuscript that was put together. From the very beginning of reading the current edition I found myself criticizing it left and right. The author declaring himself bankrupt from deriving meaning of the global events unfolding before his eyes on television. One, the television is an idiot box and the news derived from it is propaganda at best. Two, bankrupt is the key word because the banking system worldwide is bankrupt and is currently being kept afloat by fraud. Three, climate change is not due to CO2 but is the result of cyclical change of our sun at the center of the solar system. And finally, the metaphor of metamorphosis is being used as bearing all the hallmarks of a foreign body[actual words used by author].
Metamorphosis is actually close to being an excellent metaphor. The reason being is, that inherent in civilization are two different body plans/body blueprints: public power/political power versus private power/economic power. Ideally they check each other in ways that benefit both. In democracy the political power can establish the building of infrastructure: in roads and bridges; communications systems; public heath system; utilizes of power; and more - at near cost. The businesses would use these without having to pay for roads, health care, high interest[public banking], and more. These businesses would be more competitive as those costs were already born by the public. Public power would be like an Aladdin's Lamp holding the financial genie within the lamp/nation state[borders]. The financial wizards would be regulated[Glass-Steagall Act Banking Act of 1933]. But Clinton released the financial genie by deregulating economic power and the subsequent corruption skyrocketed.
I kept reading and trying to follow the author's reasoning but found myself totally disagreeing and/or at loss to his meaning. For instance, in describing our mass media he introduced the concept of landscapes of communications and public bads. He stated that the mass media has long been, and today is still largely, a world of nations. Again I disagree. President Clinton and Robert Rubin both quipped about how quaint the concept of Nation States were. That the economic powers had basically captured the nation states and defanged them[reregulated and/or bought off those in charge of enforcing what's left of financial regulations/laws]. There are no public airwaves; the airwaves/media is privately owned. In fact,. what's going on is the economic power is privatizing anything and everything publically owned. Your governments are being corporatized. Your public water sources - privatized. Your public education- privatized. Your highways & byways - privatized. Your public heath systems - privatized. That's what happening.
A similar sea change happened when capitalism replaced feudalism. Now that financial capitalism is eating industrial capitalism's lunch - we are going back to the future/electronic-computerized feudalism. In this dystopian future there are digitized platform monopolies[like google] and this digitization is putting the world's growing inequality gaps on steroids.
Economic Power is waging a class war - and the 99.99%'ers are loosing.
In my reading of The Metamorphosis of the World I found my disagreements with the author's world viewpoints at crosswords.

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Emily - London

There are theoretical nuggets here

Beoordeeld in het Verenigd Koninkrijk 🇬🇧 op 30 mei 2016

This book opens with drama - the author collapses dead in front of his partner, and his colleague and partner complete what had only been a first draft.

Beck is someone who naturally takes a European theoretical and rhetorical approach in his writing rather than the traditional English empirical and factual style - so it is pretty heavy going. As one reviewer put it, Beck is 'having a debate with himself'. Nevertheless there are nuggets here - striking visual and conceptual metaphors that help you think about the world.

Focusing on his discussion of climate change as one example of metamorphosis, he sees our changing perception of the world as a 'Copernican Turn 2' - the world picture which claimed that the sun was turning round the world always was false, but our perceptions are completely transformed when this becomes our new reality. The realisation of the extent of climate change and what is causing it, completely alters our perception of what is driving history and what is happening around us. "The world is not circulating round the nation, but the nations are circulating around the new fixed stars: 'world' and 'humanity'." The world view growing out of the imperialist Victorian era - that we are masters of the world is reversed, and international action becomes a matter of survival in the world.

He also usefully distinguishes between 'doctrines' and 'spaces of action' - what people think and what they actually do. "Doctrines can be particular and minority-oriented eg anti-cosmopolitan, anti-European, religiously fundamental, ethnic, racist; paces of action on the contrary, are inevitably constituted in a cosmopolitan way. The anti-Europeans actually sit in the European Parliament (otherwise they don't matter at all). The religious anti-modernist fundamentalists celebrate the beheadings of their western hostages on .... digital media platforms ..." Even immobile people are cosmopolitanised because increasingly they have access to knowledge through their mobile phones. result - some of them migrate.

"In sum, metamorphosis is not social change, not transformation, not evolution, not revolution and not crisis. It is a mode of changing the nature of human existence. It signifies the age of side effects. "It shifts us from 'methodological nationalism' to 'methodological cosmopolitanism' because of our interconnectedness and changed awareness of our interconnected dependency on nature.

But after this good start, on climate change the author lapses into a disguised optimism - that the metamorphosis of the world will in the end force international action or catastrophe.

He sees rising sea levels and shifting climate patterns as creating "new world maps whose key lines are not traditional boundaries between nation states and social classes but elevations above sea or river. This is a totally different way of conceptualising the world and our chances of survival within it."

He says "climate change produces a basis sense of ethical and existential violation that creates new norms". It is as dramatic as the catastrophe of the second world war and of Nazism - which produced a never-again reaction and the human rights movement.

"The insight that no nation state can cope alone with the global risk of climate change has become common sense." But he underplays the extent to which the climate inequalities mirror the old inequalities - that drought will affect sub Saharan Africa more than it will affect Europe, that richer nations have greater ability to protect themselves against flooding.

"Climate change could be made into an antidote to war" but economic collapse and mass migration could also precipitate war.

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Sierra Gentleheart

Metamorphosis is the easy part

Beoordeeld in de Verenigde Staten 🇺🇸 op 27 juli 2016

This difficult book was written for a specialized audience. It is not for a general reader, no matter how motivated that reader is to understand Ulrich Beck's ideas. The language is opaque and convoluted. While Beck was a highly regarded German sociologist, it seems that the editors who prepared the volume for publication could have done much more to make the ideas comprehensible. And about those ideas. They are creative, innovative, and wildly forward-looking. But they are not easy to grasp. I felt from start to end that I had entered a society that knew the secret handshake whereas I not only did not know it, but could not grasp it. Oddly labeled concepts like "risk society," "second modernity," and "reflexive modernization" are just the beginning. I got those. I grasped the central idea of metamorphosis. But I'm still wrestling with the challenge of the murkiness of the communication. I will read it again as soon as I get time, but at this point this general reader cannot award it more than three stars.

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The Metamorphosis of the World: How Climate Change is Transforming Our Concept of the World

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