Taking Responsibility for the Life of Complex Human Ecosystems: Deep Accountability

The long-awaited convergence of climate, economic, political, intellectual, faith and social failures gives many reasons for despair. The authors of this volume have spent their lives around the trauma of race and poverty in South Africa and the United States working with Nobel prize winners and those in townships and tenements. We have learned that hope is not delusional and accountability not naïve. But one must think clearly and deeply, untethered from the inadequate simplicities and false choices. We must be here now, with eyes wide open for when systems break down, as so many are today, knowing that they also break open new space for creative action. The authors lead the global web of thinker-doers through the Leading Causes of Life Initiative and national networks in Africa, Europe and the United States. They find coherence among profound thinking from fields never brought into alignment before drawn from by economists, mycelial researchers, anthropologists and health sciences working in the Artic to South Africa, and the tough neighbourhoods in between. This includes a consideration of the human capacities that allow us to act in and transform the world we inhabit, of the radical nature of joy in the face of despair, of the judgement of Nemesis on hubris and privilege, of the ‘value of everything’ contra price as definitive, of the idea of involution as distinguished from evolution, of the concept of ‘meshworks’ in our entanglement with others, and, finally, of the ‘theatre of the soul’ as the unity of the physical, the psychological, the political and the spiritual. Sharply sensitive to the urgency of careful thought and wise action, the authors help us see that life does find a way towards deep accountability for the life of complex human ecosystems. They ask us to take responsibility for this as a key to human flourishing and well-being.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; 1. Now; 2. Capacities; 3. Joy; 4. Storm; 5. Value; 6. Involution; 7. Walking; 8. Lightness; Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
Gary R. Gunderson (MDiv, DMin, DDiv h.c.) is Professor of Faith and the Health of the Public, School of Divinity, Wake Forest University; Secretary of Hold.Health; and a beekeeper. James R. Cochrane (BSc, MDiv, PhD, DDiv h.c.) is emeritus professor (religion) and Senior Scholar (School of Public Health) at the University of Cape Town and convenor of the Leading Causes of Life Initiative collaboration.

Review :
Gunderson and Cochrane have written one of the most significant volumes of this decade. In what feels as a broken, bent and collapsing world, they remind us that beauty, hope, compassion and connection are not only possible but, together, make for potent life-giving elixir! Emphasizing the need for us to be deeply accountable, they call upon to create a better world for our children by thinking radically and acting boldly. — Arvind Singhal, PhD, is Samuel Shirley and Edna Marston Endowed Professor of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and Director of Social Justice Initiative. Taking Responsibility is a clear-eyed moral compass for responding to the environmental and social challenges of our age. Its pages are filled with wonder, hope and practical tactics for responding to injustices and harms. Keenly thoughtful, fascinating to read and filled with humility – this slim book has the gifted potential to guide us towards a better future. — Dr Gary Machlis, University Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Clemson University and author of Sustainability for the Forgotten.