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In an urban Society

“I would say that learning this material ... has lifted some of the existential weight from me. Things aren’t as bad as they are trumpeted to be. In fact, they’re quite a bit better, and they’re getting better, and so we’re doing a better job than we thought. There’s more to us than we thought. We’re adopting our responsibilities as stewards of the planet rapidly. We are moving towards improving everyone’s life." —Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life Think the world is getting worse? If so, you’re wrong. The world is, for the most part, actually getting better. But 58 percent of people in 17 countries who were surveyed in 2016 thought that the world was either getting worse or staying the same. Americans were even more glum: 65 percent thought the world was getting worse and only 6 percent thought it was getting better. The uncontroversial data on major global trends in this book will persuade you that this dark view of the state of humanity and the natural world is, in large part, badly mistaken. World population will peak at 8–9 billion before the end of this century, as the global fertility rate continues its fall from 6 children per woman in 1960 to the current rate of 2.4. The global absolute poverty rate has fallen from 42 percent in 1981 to 8.6 percent today. Satellite data show that forest area has been expanding since 1982. Natural resources are becoming ever cheaper and more abundant. Since 1900, the average life expectancy has more than doubled, reaching more than 72 years globally. Of course, major concerns such as climate change, marine plastic pollution, and declining wildlife populations are still with us, but many of these problems are already being ameliorated as a result of the favorable economic, social, and technological trends that are documented in this book. You can’t fix what is wrong in the world if you don’t know what’s actually happening. Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know will provide busy people with quick-to-read, easily understandable, and entertaining access to surprising facts that they need to know about how the world is really faring.

Ubertrends examines eight driving forces behind the vast majority of trends and innovations taking place in society today. Ubertrends are massive waves cascading through society, leaving many subtrends in their wake. The Digital Lifestyle Ubertrend, today's biggest wave, propels a host of subtrends. Unlike typical trends, Ubertrends are changing America's values, which explains why the Digital Lifestyle is contributing to permanent behavioral changes. Ubertrends helps readers connect the dots, by providing more context for how the future is developing. Other Ubertrends described include Time Compression -- The Acceleration of Life; Unwired -- Control Enthusiast Generation, Generation X-tasy -- Been There, Done That, Voyeurgasm -- I Like to Watch; Fountain of Youth -- Rejuvenating Body, Spirit and Environment; and WAF -- The Ascent of Woman.

Our intuition on how the world works could well be wrong. We are surprised when new competitors burst on the scene, or businesses protected by large and deep moats find their defenses easily breached, or vast new markets are conjured from nothing. Trend lines resemble saw-tooth mountain ridges. The world not only feels different. The data tell us it is different. Based on years of research by the directors of the McKinsey Global Institute, No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Forces Breaking all the Trends is a timely and important analysis of how we need to reset our intuition as a result of four forces colliding and transforming the global economy: the rise of emerging markets, the accelerating impact of technology on the natural forces of market competition, an aging world population, and accelerating flows of trade, capital and people. Our intuitions formed during a uniquely benign period for the world economy -- often termed the Great Moderation. Asset prices were rising, cost of capital was falling, labour and resources were abundant, and generation after generation was growing up more prosperous than their parents. But the Great Moderation has gone. The cost of capital may rise. The price of everything from grain to steel may become more volatile. The world's labor force could shrink. Individuals, particularly those with low job skills, are at risk of growing up poorer than their parents. What sets No Ordinary Disruption apart is depth of analysis combined with lively writing informed by surprising, memorable insights that enable us to quickly grasp the disruptive forces at work. For evidence of the shift to emerging markets, consider the startling fact that, by 2025, a single regional city in China -- Tianjin -- will have a GDP equal to that of the Sweden, of that, in the decades ahead, half of the world's economic growth will come from 440 cities including Kumasi in Ghana or Santa Carina in Brazil that most executives today would be hard-pressed to locate on a map. What we are now seeing is no ordinary disruption but the new facts of business life -- facts that require executives and leaders at all levels to reset their operating assumptions and management intuition.

Sixteen Trends . . . Their Profound Impact on Our Future Highlighting key factors which are destined to reshape the world, Marx is quick to identify how each of these "trends" will influence educational policy in various ways. With improving academic achievement for ALL students as the main goal, Sixteen Trends provides an enlightened look into the learning processes of the children of tomorrow. Some of the many issues discussed within its contents include: -the shift in population demographics and its role in life-long learning -the need for school curriculum and practices to reflect the dawning of the "information age" -the importance of equilibrium and acceptance of divergent viewpoints in preparing for emerging generations -how continuous improvement will replace "quick fixes" and challenge the status quo theory of education -why the globalization of politics and the economy today will mandate the need for interdependence in educational practice When asked about the importance of his book Sixteen Trends, author Gary Marx states, "Linear goals are not enough. Looking at tomorrow and seeing it only as a little bit more or a little bit less of today just won't cut it as we move into the future. Surrounded by a world filled with discontinuities, we desperately need to set at least a few audacious goals, the kind that took us to the moon and planets, reduced computers from a dozen racks of equipment to a single hand-held device, and envisioned educational opportunity for all. Much of what happens as we break ground on the future will come at us out of the blue. We are in a constant, unrelenting, and exciting race to lay the groundwork for an even brighter future for our children and ourselves." We at ERS are pleased to bring you the latest in Marx's groundbreaking series. According to ERS President Dr. John Forsyth, "Gary Marx's work provides an impetus for our educational community. The ability for ERS to share the information contained within Sixteen Trends is a positive and progressive step in ensuring that we are well-prepared in today's educational system for what the future holds."

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.