Demise of Reductionism: From Growth to Concentration

Abstract

If there is one word that can represent the social, economic and political problems of both the industrialised and developing countries, that word is “concentration”. There are few problems in our present society that are not originated from the concentration of power, people and production. Concentration of political and financial power in the hands of the rich, concentration of people in the large cities of the world and concentration of production in a relatively small number of large organisations are the major sources of the problems threatening the security of human society. This article will discuss how development activities, based on economic growth and traditional reductionist approaches, caused concentration of wealth, people, production and power. As a multidisciplinary and holistic approach is adopted, discussions in this article will touch on many of the economic and non-economic development-related issues such as history and theory, globalisation, environment, disparities, poverty, warfare, academic responsibilities and development of development understanding.