Review of Encyclopedia Vols 1-3

*94-600 Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (Fourth Edition). Edited by Union of International Associations (40 rue Washington, B-1050 Brussels). Orchestrated by Anthony Judge. Munich: K.G. Saur, July 1994/3 vols/$725.00. (K.G. Saur/Reed Reference, 121 Chanlon Rd, New Providence NJ 07974; 800-521-8110.)

This review, by Michael Marien, appeared in Future Survey, 16:12, December 1994, p. 15. Note that all the comments, including [bracketed] ones, are the work of the M Marien.

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Volume 1 on World Problems (1,258p) offers entries on 12,203 world problems; of these, 9,836 have descriptive entries -- 13% more than in the Third Edition (Saur, 1991; FS Annual 1994 #10956). Problems are divided into five sub-sections, and a very few examples follow: 1) Basic Universal Problems: crime, refugees, underdevelopment, human violence, unemployment, discrimination, corruption; 2) Cross-Sectoral Problems: global economic stagnation, aging, water pollution, communism, capitalism, global warming, racism, malnutrition, arms trade, political apathy, youth unemployment, organized crime, external debt crisis, denial of human rights; 3) Detailed Problems: nuclear weapons, air pollution, alcohol abuse, tobacco smoking, exploitation of child labor, illicit drug trafficking, excessive television viewing, deception by government, asthma, desertification, infanticide, acid precipitation, AIDS, imprisonment; 4) Emanations of Other Problems: diabetes, multi-drug abuse, fragmentation of the UN system, hunting of marine animals, hepatitis, hypertension, malaria, soil salinization, oil spillage, antisemitism, discrimination against women, 5) Fuzzy Exceptional Problems: inadequate family planning, Zionism, excessive government control, inhumanity of capital punishment, inadequacy of foreign aid, aggression, fragmentation of knowledge, inadequate dissemination of local information, disruptive religious fundamentalism, UFOs, witchcraft. Most of the problem entries include a description of the problem and its estimated incidence, claims and counter-claims about its importance, references to relevant literature [generally scanty and out-of-date], and cross-references to broader and narrower problems, related problems, and problems that aggravate or alleviate the described problem (and vice versa).

Volume 2 on Human Potential (929 p.) provides five sections: 1) Human Development: 4,456 entries (up by 10% over the 1991 edition and nearly triple the number of the 1986 edition) describing concepts with which people identify, such as I Ching, empathy, grace, love, creativity, initiation, magic, religious growth and many modes of awareness; 2) Integrative Knowledge: bibliography of conceptual approaches and discussion of consequences for application to societal problems; 3) Metaphors and Patterns: re-views "the complete range of communication possibilities and constraints" with a bibliography and a discussion of the significance of metaphor/analogy/symbol/pattern, the epistemological crisis of governance, unsustainable policies, imaginal deficiency in management. and policy making, and metaphoric development; 4) Transformative Approaches: discussion of configuring information in new ways such as interactive database use, network analysis, visualization, paradox management, conferencing, policy cycles, transformative conferencing, policy forums, and 25 pages of small print on an "arranged marriage" of poetry and policy; 5) Values and Wisdom: registers "a complete range of values with which people identify," resulting in 3,254 entries under sub-categories of Constructive Values (balance clarity, discipline, excellence, flexibility, goodness, health) Destructive Values (abuse, bribery, censure, denial, excess, fragmentation, guilt, harm), and Value Polarities (equality-inequality, simplicity-complexity, power-impotence).

The introductory overview duplicated in each volume has sections on warnings to users (inconsistencies, editorial bias, non-completion), the contextual challenge (biased expertise, short-termism, loss of integrity), the existential challenge (simplistic responses, unaccountability, personal egotism), strategic assumptions (narrow information base, disagreement phobia), objectives (to clarify "fuzzy" domains, assemble information from a very wide range of international groups), uses (as conventional directory, to appreciate higher orders of complexity, to facilitate dialogue, to encourage integrative studies).

Volume 3 on Actions/Strategies/Solutions published in 1995 [NOTE: Far more awesome, global, and comprehensive than the Whole Earth Catalog but far less fun and user-friendly. The basic categories of the human problems are not useful (they should be grouped by sector), and the bibliographic references are lacking or out-of-date for many items. The keyword here is complexity; this is not a tool for anyone seeking quick or easy answers.]
(9,836 world problems described)