Douglas M. Brown – författare

In today's culture of insatiable freedom, many believe that to be human is to be an insatiable self-actualizer. Yet insatiable is not sustainable. In order to solve today's crisis of environmental sustainability--and human sustainability--we must let go of our obsession to constantly be more. The desire to have all that we can have comes, Brown argues, from a cultural norm that has evolved to become an economic, social, and moral imperative-that To Be is to achieve more, improve more, and insatiably have more, to the point of planetary extinction.Incorporating the views of classic scholars--Aristotle, J. S. Mill, Marx, Thorstein Veblen--into his own unique interpretation, Brown traces human history from the earliest hunters and gatherers through the emergence of capitalism and the evolution to today's insatiable self and the culture of insatiable freedom. In conclusion, Brown argues cogently for the creation of a culture of sustainability, offering practical ways to achieve this goal.

In today's culture of insatiable freedom, many believe that to be human is to be an insatiable self-actualizer. Yet insatiable is not sustainable. In order to solve today's crisis of environmental sustainability--and human sustainability--we must let go of our obsession to constantly be more. The desire to have all that we can have comes, Brown argues, from a cultural norm that has evolved to become an economic, social, and moral imperative-that To Be is to achieve more, improve more, and insatiably have more, to the point of planetary extinction.Incorporating the views of classic scholars--Aristotle, J. S. Mill, Marx, Thorstein Veblen--into his own unique interpretation, Brown traces human history from the earliest hunters and gatherers through the emergence of capitalism and the evolution to today's insatiable self and the culture of insatiable freedom. In conclusion, Brown argues cogently for the creation of a culture of sustainability, offering practical ways to achieve this goal.

Focusing on the aftermath of the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty, Marc Desjardins (McGill/Government of Canada) evaluates the first six months of Lucien Bouchard's tenure as premier of Quebec, John Trent (Ottawa) provides a useful guide to the myriad of citizen groups that have sprung up since the referendum, and Douglas Brown (New South Wales) outlines how scholars outside Quebec have begun to think seriously about the "unthinkable" - a vote in favour of sovereignty in a future referendum. Examining the ongoing management of the Canadian federation, François Rocher (Carleton) and Christian Rouillard (Carleton) challenge the view that Canada is among the most decentralized federations in the world, Herman Bakvis (Dalhousie) analyses federal proposals to devolve labour market development to the provinces, Daniel Cohn (Carleton) assesses the final version of the Canada Health and Social Transfer, Robert Williams (Waterloo) surveys intergovernmental relations on cultural policy, Christopher McKee (UBC) provides a detailed analysis of the treaty-making process in British Columbia, and Patrick Fafard (Queen's) examines the overall state of the federation, likening it to a game of multidimensional chess. As always, the volume includes a chronology of events from July 1995 to June 1996, providing a useful reference to significant developments in Canadian federalism and intergovernmental relations.