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Die Autorinnen fragen nach den Inhalten und Formen von Wissen über Raum und Raumentwicklung für die große Transformation sowie nach den Bedingungen für dessen Produktion und Verbreitung. Vor dem Hintergrund der frühen Debatten um nachhaltige Raumentwicklung werden die Hemmnisse und Blockaden dargestellt, die sich aus einem verkürzten Raumverständnis ergeben können. Die Rolle wissenschaftlicher Institutionen bei der Produktion und Verbreitung von Transformations- und transformativem Raumwissen - insbesondere der Hochschulen, in welche die Raum- und Planungswissenschaften eingebunden sind - wird diskutiert. Der Beitrag mündet ein in fünf zusammenfassende Thesen, mit denen zugleich weiterführende Forschungsbedarfe zum Thema formuliert werden.

The present article attempts to identify and analyze the complex of those large-scale and profound shifts that have taken place in the most important spheres of public life on a global scale over the past three to four decades (late 20th – early 21st century). Based on the analysis of these and other related trends and processes, it is concluded that the modern world has entered a qualitatively new stage in its development, its radical transformation. The meaning and purpose of this transformation consist in reassessing all the values of democracy, human rights and freedoms, their systemic characteristics, place and role in a modern rapidly changing world, reshaping the paradigm foundations of world outlook, world order and life organization of the modern world. The main focus is on those tectonic shifts that have occurred in the basic infrastructures of the modern world in the last three to four decades in the context of globalization and the information and telecommunication revolution. It has been shown that the revolutions generated by these shifts in the most important spheres of social life erode the very foundations of the modern Western civilization. Thus, the thesis is substantiated that we are witnessing a deep existential change, which is possibly surpassing in its consequences the transition from paganism to new world religions, or the so-called "Great Transformation" – the transition from the Middle Ages to a rationalistic capitalist civilization of the Euro-Atlantic world. These tectonic transformations are viewed through the prism of the axial time theory, the essence of which is to reappraise all the values that have prevailed in the Western capitalist industrial civilization up to the present day. The information and telecommunication revolution has created the conditions for the onset of the twilight of the liberal/unipolar world order and for the formation of foundations of a new polycentric world order.

"In the 1980s the performance of Japan's economy was an international success story, and led many economists suggest that the 1990s would be a Japanese decade. Today however, the dominant view today is that Japan is inescapably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it has experienced over the past 30 years, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the 1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, and well into the 21st century. This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajectory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has faced over the past thirty years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with reference to the 'neo-liberal moment', the nature of the transformation of Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in continental Europe, which has experienced problems which in many ways are also comparable to those of Japan. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those interested in comparative political economy"--

"Die Marktkräfte erniedrigen die menschlichen Tätigkeiten, erschöpfen aber die Natur und machen Währungen krisenanfällig - so die grundlegende Erkenntnis des Vaters der Großen Transformation. Was ist von Karl Polanyis These im Gutachten des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats für globale Umweltveränderungen übrig geblieben? Eine Spurensuche." (Autorenreferat)

"In the 1980s the performance of Japan's economy was an international success story, and led many economists suggest that the 1990s would be a Japanese decade. Today however, the dominant view today is that Japan is inescapably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it has experienced over the past 30 years, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the 1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, and well into the 21st century. This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajectory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has faced over the past thirty years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with reference to the 'neo-liberal moment', the nature of the transformation of Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in continental Europe, which has experienced problems which in many ways are also comparable to those of Japan. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those interested in comparative political economy"--

In the aftermath of the 1930s Great Depression, and as the Second World War was drawing to a close, Karl Polanyi concluded a critical analysis of market capitalism on an optimistic — and with the benefit of hindsight we can add premature — note, remarking that the 'primacy of society' over the economic system had been 'secured'. Eighty years later, amidst the unresolved turmoil of another comparable global capitalist economic crisis and accumulating signs of a growing environmental crisis, both a direct legacy of the operation of the 'market economy', the remedy advocated by governments and policy-makers is effectively a return to 'business as usual'. Notwithstanding various manifestations of public expression of dissatisfaction with the consequences of global 'free-market' capitalism, which include increasing inequality, poverty, unemployment, depletion of scarce natural resources, environmental destruction, pollution and waste, the default policy setting remains to restore global economic growth, to generate further increases in production and cultivate ever-rising rates of consumption, even if the risk is 'common ruin'. However, there are a number of realistic, progressive and radical alternatives proposed by critical analysts, including a political program for 'de-growth' , a reinvention of communism and detailed policy proposals outlining the measures necessary to promote a transition to a 'post-capitalist' society with a sustainable economy.

To understand from a perspective of Political Economy what is going on in the so-called information society we should identify and understand the new kind of goods and services that are produced, distributed and consumed via digital information and communication technologies (DICT). To perform this task we go back to the basics: Let us start with the notion of "useful things". Useful things have many attributes, and we can therefore use them in many ways. The usefulness of a thing makes it a use-value, because by its intrinsic characteristics it can satisfy some human need, either real or imaginary, maybe positive or negative for anybody. Although elementary, the concept of a useful thing is not trivial, because the notion of usefulness is rather tricky. This notion in fact re?ects the complex cobweb of the society in question. What is useful in one society can become useless in another one or vice versa, therefore even a use-value does not represent an invariant over time. However, there is more to be told: Already Aristotle stated that beyond the use-value of an object there is another kind of value, exchange-value, which marks the de?nition of a commodity up to now: "The one (i.e. use-value P.F.) is peculiar to the object as such, the other (i.e. exchangevalue P.F.) is not, as a sandal which may be worn, and is also exchangeable. Both are uses of the sandal, for even he who exchanges the sandal for the money or food he is in want of, makes use of the sandal as a sandal. But not in its natural way. For it has not been made for the sake of being exchanged.