Thinking the Twenty­‐First Century

This book has a restless urgency which demands recognition that the world has moved on from traditional corporate structures and practices and that business as usual is not only not an option any more, it is old-fashioned to say it because ... the world is moving on. Those companies that do not understand the changing climate will become history and Malcolm McIntosh's vision of a commercial world with the community as central stakeholders will be a reality. This is a powerful work by a man at his peak and will, in fifty years' time, be seen as a masterpiece. -- Sir Tim Smit KBE, Executive Chairman, Eden Regeneration, and co-founder of the Eden Project In Thinking the Twenty-First Century, Malcolm McIntosh recalls Barack Obama's comment that Nelson Mandela's leadership "freed the prisoner and the jailer". McIntosh's book explains what we must now do to drive the same outcome with tomorrow's economy. -- John Elkington, co-founder of Volans and SustainAbility and author of 'The Breakthrough Challenge' Thinking the Twenty-First Century provides fresh perspectives on the world that could be, where people and communities take centre stage. This book is both timely and urgent as humanity struggles to seek solutions for a fairer and sustainable future. -- Georg Kell, Executive Director, UN Global Compact McIntosh brings to a head a long career of activism, teaching and writing to reflect on what it means to be human in the c.21st based on what we now know about our world. In a world cluttered with data overload, he provides deep insight and understanding by suggesting five system changes that are both already underway, and need to be accelerated. He argues with passion, personal reflections and argumentation rooted in a vast collection of literatures that the time for miserabilism is over and what we need is a grand radically pragmatic optimism about what we can anticipate for the future. His emphasis on learning, adaptation and resilience is a welcome alternative to the mechanistic and now dried out tropes of the mainstream sustainable development literature. This is a text that truly speaks to a global audience rather than the literate few concentrated in institutions of higher learning mainly in the global North. Without the system changes advocated in this book, the global South has no chance of realising the dream of a just transition. The time has come for this book and more books like this that attempt to build a shared language of transition to prepare the way for the grand coalitions of the willing needed to bring forth the futures we all yearn for. -- Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke, Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University and authors of 'Just Transitions' Malcolm McIntosh writes in a nice easy going style and his exploration of neoliberalism is great. Similarly I enjoyed the conversation about our evolution and likely end because there is no reason why we should continue. In that regard, perhaps the sustainable development story is supreme hubris. Also, I loved the vignettes about Peter Drucker and the Whole Earth Catalog. Thanks for writing it, it has helped me clarify my own understandings and added to them as well. -- Nick Barter, Associate Professor and MBA Director, Griffith Business School, and PRME Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand This wonderful book should be required reading for anyone who cares about building the new types of cross-sector and multidisciplinary leadership skills, institutional structures and partnerships that are so urgently needed to drive more inclusive and sustainable prosperity. Malcolm McIntosh draws on his years of experience as a pioneering practitioner and scholar at the forefront of the global corporate responsibility and sustainability movement to give us a thoughtful, eloquent and passionate call to action. He challenges and inspires us in equal measure, and offers a compelling combination of historical evidence, current dilemmas and future vision to make his case for change. His work has already influenced thousands of students and practitioners around the world, and this book should encourage many others to take personal responsibility for building a better world. -- Jane Nelson, Director, CSR Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School When we have so much awareness of the rise of mindfulness and sustainability, this book is a hope, connecting the wisdom of East and West for our future on Earth. -- Professor Mari Kondo, Director, Doshisha Business School, Kyoto, Japan Malcolm McIntosh is not a designer, but Thinking the Twenty-First Century is an inspirational call to action for design that comes not a moment too soon. Taking us on journey through the changes we must make to our systems, our society, our institutions and our worldviews, it allows us to imagine and design a radically different future and provides the knowledge, the optimism and the courage to help us get there. -- Clare Brass, Head of SustainRCA It is rare to find an author willing to speak truth to power as McIntosh does in this thoughtful and provocative look at the ills of our present world and at ways to escape the inevitable outcome we face if we ignore their causes. He calls sustainability the illusion of progress that it is. Full of his own reckonings, it is hard to put down and slip back into inaction. -- John R. Ehrenfeld, author of 'Sustainability by Design' A page-turner that synthesises the thinking about why we need to change, and how it might come about. -- Sara Parkin, Founder Director, Forum for the Future This thoughtful book by Malcolm McIntosh is a collection of five essays, each on a change required to build a new global political economy. Reading the book ... you come to know the author, appreciate his open self-awareness and his quiet wisdom; you will delight in the paradoxes that he illuminates - a very worthwhile experience. -- Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chair, Foundation for the Global Compact; former Chair of Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo American McIntosh urges us to bridge the thin line between a cosmological and a deeply intimate view of our circumstances and possibilities. -- Simon Zadek, Senior Fellow, Global Green Growth Institute and the International Institute of Sustainable Development It's a tour de force of a very broad-ranging literature and evidence as to global developments. I liked the positive tone and the integration of personal experiences with the other material... It makes it come alive. -- Professor Michael Powell, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business), Griffith Business School This thoughtful book by Malcolm McIntosh is a collection of five essays, each on a change required to build a new global political economy. Ranging widely from rebalancing science and awe, the impact of feminine thinking on peacefulness to quiet leadership, as well as more expected areas of earth systems and institutional reorganisation, each essay is a stimulating discussion drawing on a remarkable array of sources. Reading the book is like spending an evening in personal and stimulating discussion with someone who brings you new ideas or reframes things which you may think you know already. You come to know the author, appreciate his open self-awareness and his quiet wisdom; you will delight in the paradoxes that he illuminates - a very worthwhile experience. -- Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chair, Foundation for the Global Compact; former Chair of Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo American Lots of fresh ideas in a way that is delightful to read. This book will more than repay careful thought, whether you agree with it or not. -- R. Edward Freeman, University Professor and Olsson Professor, The Darden School, University of Virginia, USA Malcolm McIntosh sees the twenty-first century in transformative terms. Five great currents of change, often turbulent and unpredictable, will frame the political economy of the future. Indeed, we can see signs of its arrival all around us today. These changes are, in brief: a global and holistic view of the world; the evolution of knowledge to rebalance science and awe; peacefulness and the rise of empathy and social cohesion, which he attributes to a feminisation of decision-making and governance; the new and varied ways we organise activities; and the power of adaptive learning. The shape of the emerging political economy is being moulded by these five forces; Malcolm McIntosh brilliantly analyses and assesses the crucial elements of each. This is a book worth reading by a man worth knowing. -- James E. Post, J.D., PhD, John F. Smith, Jr. Professor in Management, Emeritus, Boston University, USA Truly brilliant. McIntosh ... combines science, politics, economics, feminisation and spirituality among other areas of insight to create a call for a new order that is much needed in our world ... Read this book! You will be glad you did. -- Sandra Waddock, Galligan Chair of Strategy, Boston College Carroll School of Management, USA This is a book that challenges us to think about the big problems - the ones we too often hide from by focusing on our little corner of work and world; the ones that overwhelm us; the ones that seem too vast and intractable to even attempt to address. Recognising both the crushing weight as well as the absolute necessity to address these questions - questions of who we are as human beings, why we live and how we organise ourselves in ways that may allow us to continue as a species - Malcolm McIntosh has seemingly found a freedom in the very weight of these issues. He invites us to throw off the usual constraints of discipline-based thinking, allowing us to find a joy and intellectual freedom that can fuel us even as we stand, clear-eyed before the challenges that will determine our fate. McIntosh has given us all a gift: more than answers he has rather demonstrated a way forward. -- Mary C. Gentile, PhD; author of 'Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right' Thinking the Twenty-First Century is a magnificent, unruly, exuberant book ... a book that traverses all the modalities of human thought and action to find practical wisdom in unlikely places. It offers us a viable and satisfying model for political and intellectual leadership ... If the UN High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability really do want a transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to a new political economy, then they could not want for a better guide. -- Richard Little, Impact International Ltd A burning man amidst the sociopathic ecopolitical landscape, this beautifully written book ... is educating, witty and rich in history. Most of all, Malcolm McIntosh's book is a reminder that we CAN do things differently. -- Renata Frolova, Head of Responsible Procurement, Maersk Line, Denmark This book, partly diary and partly a collection of essays, is a love letter to life and encouragement not to go quietly but to scream loudly. -- David J. Vidal, Senior Fellow and former Head of Sustainability, The Conference Board, New York, USA "Brilliant" is a term that the British often use to describe something they like. I want to use that term in the more American sense to signify that this book is truly brilliant. Malcolm McIntosh, a polymath of the first order, combines science, politics, economics, feminisation and spirituality among other areas of insight in Thinking the Twenty-First Century to create a call for a new order that is much needed in our world. In words that pull few punches, McIntosh calls for five crucial changes: sustainability and awareness of globality; rebalancing science with awe - and spirituality; feminisation of the world to incorporate values of connection, caring and harmony; rethinking capitalism; and adopting a "quieter" form of leadership. Read this book! You will be glad you did. -- Sandra Waddock, Galligan Chair of Strategy, Boston College Carroll School of Management, USA Malcolm McIntosh's consciousness-shifting book helps us see the problems that threaten our very human existence. I recommend it to anyone who is ready for a paradigm shift in leadership for the twenty-first century. -- Amina Aitsi-Selmi, Honorary Senior Research Associate, University College, London, UK A burning man amidst the sociopathic ecopolitical landscape, this beautifully written book advocates for a balanced political economy with community at its centre, as an alternative to a world built to feed the system of neoliberal economics. The book is educating, witty and rich in history; much like a conversation with its author, it is bound to leave you feeling nourished and wanting more. Most of all, Malcolm McIntosh's book is a reminder that we CAN do things differently. -- Renata Frolova, Head of Responsible Procurement, Maersk Line, Denmark The world is becoming more and more dominated by specialists who know a lot about a particular topic. We desperately need people who have a wider focus such that they see the larger pattern of things - and Malcolm McIntosh is one of these special people. He combines this wider vision with experience at the top of global companies and media. For the reader, the combination of experience at the top and commitment to the future results in a book that is compulsive reading. -- Alan Feest, Chartered Ecologist, University of Bristol, UK

Combining science, philosophy, politics and economics, McIntosh takes a provocative look at the changes required to build a new global political economy. This call to action advocates a balanced political economy with trandisciplinarity, accountability and transparency at its centre.

In a sophisticated and far-reaching blend of theory and reflection, Thinking the Twenty-First Century takes a provocative look at the changes required to build a new global political economy. McIntosh charts five system changes essential to this transition: globality and Earth awareness; the rebalancing of science and awe; peacefulness and the feminization of decision-making; the re-organization of our institutions; and, evolution, adaptation and learning. That they are all connected should be obvious, but that they are written about together is less common.McIntosh argues that these five changes are already under way and need to be accelerated. Combining science, philosophy, politics and economics, Thinking the Twenty-First Century questions our current model of capitalism and calls for a much-needed new order. This forceful call to action advocates a balanced political economy with trandisciplinarity, connectivity, accountability and transparency at its centre, as an alternative to a world built on the failing system of neoliberal economics.From one of the pioneers of the global corporate sustainability and social responsibility movement, this unique book combines analysis, diary and reflection to present a radical way forward for the twenty-first cent