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Global Risks 2012 - Seventh Edition | World Economic Forum-Global Risks 2012 - Seventh Edition

Economic imbalances and social inequality risk reversing the gains of globalization, warns the World Economic Forum in its report Global Risks 2012. These are the findings of a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders, indicating a shift of concern from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks compared to a year ago. Respondents worry that further economic shocks and social upheaval could roll back the progress globalization has brought, and feel that the world’s institutions are ill-equipped to cope with today’s interconnected, rapidly evolving risks. The findings of the survey fed into an analysis of three major risk cases: Seeds of Dystopia; Unsafe Safeguards and the Dark Side of Connectivity. The report analyses the top 10 risks in five categories - economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological - and also highlights “X Factor” risks, the wild card threats which warrant more research, including a volcanic winter, cyber neotribalism and epigenetics, the risk that the way we live could have harmful, inheritable effects on our genes. Key crisis management lessons from Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters are highlighted in a special chapter.

An interesting report that underlines the need to transform our society from an productivity optimizing hence brittle one to a resilient and adaptive society.

But for me this report also raise the need to again argue for a necessary analysis of what is going on and from which standpoint the discussions in Davos is held. One of the core issues underlying many of the problems and risks in this report is the structural transformation of the power and consequently governance, a lot due to the emergence of radically new communication capabilities. Because of that the platform from where this discussion is taking place is a completely different place in the power hierarchies than most of the participants think.

Underlying many of the risks in these lists we can trace the effects of a differently wired world i e an emerging bottom-up model of governance. From the Davos perspective i e the perspective from a traditional and hierarchical standpoint to much of what is going on is perceived as societal threats or risks to address, when in fact they are just threats to the traditional ways of governing! To be able to focus on the real risks and challenges in the world we must understand that a changing communication paradigm is NOT a risk to hedge for or a problem to solve. It is more like the paradigmatic shift when your life changes when you give birth your first child. It is not a problem to solve but rather a case when you mature and realize that the world doesn’t gravitate around you alone anymore, but around the new unit of the family, suddenly and magically appear. It is rather a new prerequisite that you have to come to turn with and understand how to relate to, and consequently adapt to in the best way you can, but not a problem to solve.

Source: weforum.org