Tipping out of trouble : how societies transformed and how we can do so again / Marten Scheffer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheffer, Marten, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social evolution.

Global environmental change.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 277 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

What kind of trouble lies ahead? How can we successfully transition towards a sustainable future? Drawing on a remarkably broad range of insights from complex systems and the functioning of the brain to the history of civilizations and the workings of modern societies, the distinguished scientist Marten Scheffer addresses these key questions of our times. He looks to the past to show how societies have tipped out of trouble before, the mechanisms that drive social transformations and the invisible hands holding us back. He traces how long-standing practices such as the slave trade and foot-binding were suddenly abandoned and how entire civilizations have collapsed to make way for something new. Could we be heading for a similarly dramatic change? Marten Scheffer argues that a dark future is plausible but not yet inevitable and he provides us instead with a hopeful roadmap to steer ourselves away from collapse-and toward renewal.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Reviews

Title page

Imprints page

Contents

Prologue: Change is in the Air

1 The Trouble

A Planetary Crisis

A Societal Crisis

Who Are We?

2 The Tipping

Loss of Resilience

3 How Civilizations Transformed

The Birth of Civilization

Collapse

Senescence

Rejuvenation

Revolution

Norm Shifts

Technological Revolutions

History's Rhyme: Changing Fast and Slow

4 How Social Tipping Works

The Basic Theory

Getting Stuck

Lost Attraction

Breaking Loose

Five Complementary Views

Ten Laws of Social Tipping

5 Reading our Times

The Information Revolution

Getting Emotional

A Changing Political Tide

Getting Greener

The Big Picture

6 Three Plausible Futures

A Failed World

A Good Anthropocene

Buying Time

7 The Invisible Strangling Hand

Cleaning Mood

Free Will

Revealing the Hand

Unmasking Bullshit

Debunking Bullshit

Unleashing Cascading Change

8 What Can Be Done

What You Can Do

The Invisible Hand Revisited

Turning the Ship

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Apr 2026).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-69977-6

1-009-69974-1

1-009-69978-4

9781009699747

OCLC:

1577289256