REVIEW OF The Hidden Connections REVIEWER: EMMANUEL TETE DARKO

MVP-BONSAASO (GHANA)
ghlolam@yahoo.com

Preface Now that sustainability has become a mainstream ambition in the global market, the task is to ensure a sufficient supply of sustainably produced products. Progress is no longer constrained by the level of demand, but by the level of supply. Market processes must deliver socially desirable outcomes. Sustainable markets are created through interaction between good governance, active civil society organizations and companies committed to corporate social responsibility, says Nico Roozen. There is only one Earth, and it is our task to look after it for our children. Most people are inspired by the vision that sustainable production in agriculture and industry, combined with fair trade in the products of these activities, can make a significant contribution to combating poverty and preserving people's environment, in the context of a globalizing economy. Creating a living wage and humane working conditions for people in developing countries provides the basis for a decent existence and the conditions for putting a stop to the wholesale theft of scarce natural resources; poverty is degrading and must be eradicated. This literature discusses Fritjof, Capra (2002). The Hidden Connections: Integrating The Biological, Cognitive, And Social Dimension Of Life Into A Sustainability. The objective of this paper is to review and evaluate the quality, meaning, and significance of the works of Capra with regards to the above mentioned book. The spotlight of this review will be an introduction and biography of the author, the development and description of the book under review, objectives, motto, theme, of the book, the authors style of writing and the books format will be highlighted. The main ideas of the Book will also be emphasized, there will be critical analysis of issues raised in the Book, the strengths and 1

weaknesses of the Book, how well the Book has achieved its goals and how the Book has could affect peoples life and surroundings. The paper will end with a conclusion of the review. Authors Biography Fritjof, Capra (born February 1, 1939) the winner of the American Book Award in 1992, is an Austrian-born American physicist. He is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, and is on the faculty of Schumacher College. Capra is the author of several books, including The Tao of Physics (1975), The Turning Point (1982), Uncommon Wisdom (1988), The Web of Life (1996), and The Hidden Connections (2002). www.amazon.com Capra has also co-authored books with other intellectuals, notable among these books are: Green Politics (co-authored with Charlene Spretnak, 1984); Belonging to The Universe (Coauthoted with David Steindl-Rast and Thomas Matus, 1991); Eco Management (Co-authored with Ernest Callenbach, Lenore Goldman, Rudiger Lutz and Sandra Marburg, 1993) and Steering Business Toward Sustainability (Co-authored with Gunter Pauli, 1995) Development And Description of The Book The Hidden Connections: Integrating The Biological, Cognitive, And Social Dimension of Life into a Sustainability, the first edition by Fritjof Capra (August 20th, 2002). This book incorporates issues from multiply disciplines, notably among them are: Agriculture (Pg. 160), Anthropology (Pg. 92-4, 265), Economics (Pg. 262), Environmental Studies (Pg. 230-3, 262-5), Information Technology (Pg. 131-6), Management (Pg. 97-100, 114, 141-6), Marketing (Pg. 263) Political Science (Pg. 262), Physical Science (Pg. 3), and many more. This fascinating book was published by Doubleday a division of Random House Inc. 1540 Broadway, New York and contains 320 pages. The Hidden Connections was designed by Nicola Ferguson and printed in the United States of America. The jacket of the book was also designed by Beck Stvan and jacket photograph snapped by Photonica The book is essentially alienated into two parts. Part one presents the new theoretical framework which is captured in three chapters and encapsulates life, mind, and society; where the nature of life, the nature of mind and consciousness and the nature of social reality are discussed respectively. Whereas part two envelops the challenges of the twenty first century; where life and leadership in organizations, the networks of global capitalism, biotechnology at a turning point 2

and changing the game are also dealt with extensively. The title of Capras (2002) book is far from ambiguity judging from the topics covered. Objectives of Fritjof, Capra (2002). The Hidden Connections The objective(s) of Fritjof Capra was to present a unified view of life, mind and society and also to develop a coherent, systematic approach to some critical issues of our time. In all this Fritjof Capra proposal hopes to extend the new understanding of life which according to him has emerged from complexity theory to the social domain and in doing so, he attempts to present a conceptual framework that integrates lifes biological, Cognitive and social dimensions. This framework, Capra assumes will afford an understanding of material and social structures. The Motto And The Theme of The Book The books motto, Education is the ability to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena was a statement from His Excellency The President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel in his opening address to the Forum 2000 Conference in Prague on 15th October, 2000. Fritjof, Capra (2002). The central theme of Fritjof, Capra (2002) Hidden Connections, is focused on the fundamental change of worldview that is occurring in science and in society, the unfolding of a new vision of reality and the social implications of cultural transformation. The Author's Style And The Book's Format Capras style of writing though technical is lucid and suitable to the subject and his presentation was coherent and original. He made use of correct technical words to a larger extent, especially in attempt to explain what life is all about. I must quickly add that the fullness of development of his concepts and the fluidity suit the intended audience of the Book. He used argumentative in the opening stages of chapter one, where he opined that social scientists might prefer to consider first indentifying the defining characteristics of social reality and then extending into the biological domain and integrating it with the corresponding concepts in the natural sciences; and more importantly contending that social reality evolved out of biological world between two and four million years ago. To a larger degree he combined excellently exposition, narrative and descriptive in articulating his view points. It should be noted that there were lots of quotations, sketches, illustrations and scenarios to buttress his arguments and these were adequately acknowledged in the Notes at page 269-84. Coupled with this is the fact that there was extensive credit to the various scholars and institutions whose works he used as well as extensively acknowledging all those in diverse ways 3

that offered inspirational and enthusiastic support to him in coming out with this book as well as providing detailed bibliography of sources he referenced. The bibliography had equally primary and secondary sources. The Authors Main Ideas Fritjof Capra in this part of the hidden connections discussed the concept of life in a scientific viewpoint. In this chapter Fritjof Capra posited that all living organism has cells which determine ones existence, and this knowledge enables us as humans to approach all issues from scientific stand point, and more imperatively to appreciate the fact that we are being influenced by internal and external variables in all spheres of life. He looked at the origins of life, mind and consciousness and the nature of social reality, showing that the network (and hence connectedness) are the central structure of life. He also shows that life, consciousness and society are emergent properties, in other words they are, in some senses, by-products of simpler processes embedded in the chemical and biological networks that are the building blocks of life. The question of what is life? as posed by Capra was addressed from the scientific perspective and due to the potential limitation in addressing this question Capra refines the issue to what are the defining characteristics of the living system?. He discovered that all biological life consists of life; and the reductionist- a scientific method was adopted as the strategy in defining the characteristics of life. Fritjof Capra contended that ones continuous existence is more determined by his/her exogenous factors. It is explicit from Fritjof Capras submission that no one can survive independently but rather we live in a world full of interdependency irrespective of your status. Fritjof Capra (2002) emphasized this position when he contended that our information age, social functions and processes are increasingly organized around networks irrespectively of the sector of the economy and more importantly it has become a critical source of power. In furtherance of this, he contended in pages 5-6 that animals depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy; plants depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as on the nitrogen fixed by the bacteria of their roots and together plants, animals and microorganisms regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to life. Fritjof Capra (2002), again argued in page 263 of his book that USA for instance projects its tremendous powers in the world with the view to perpetuating its position and amassing 4

resources and it is in view of this that it has developed its state and private institutions to be extremely powerful and is championing for free trade and free markets and portraying material acquisition as a basic human right. Another critical issue surmised by Capra is the extensive damaged to the environment in an attempt to gratify our human needs and he confidently consent that it is a herculean task in attaining sustainability. He opined the contrasting goals of global economy, which is wealth creation and eco-design, which is sustainability. And in buttressing his assertion he quoted Vandana Shiva in page 263 of his book as saying Resources move from the poor to the rich and pollution moves from the rich to the poor. This is bizarre from all perspective. Having introduced us to the main philosophical and scientific ideas which underpin his thinking, Capra then examines a number of topics in more detail, starting with leadership and organisation. While it is interesting to see complexity theory applied to organisations, this section of the book reads more like a trendy management manual than anything else. Given the fact that Capra spends a fair chunk of his time giving seminars and talks to senior managers and executives at major corporations, this should be no surprise. The message that he delivers may be uncomfortable to them, but it's not one that they don't want to hear, when he talks to them of employee. His analysis of the networks of global capitalism is lucid. He describes the rise of the networked economy, the automated trading of currency and stocks, the distributed nature of the economic grid. Quite rightly he describes a system that isn't controlled by any individual person, company, government or organization. But while it's out of control - an automaton as he puts it it is also owned and serviced by a corporations and governments. To say that it's a monster that is out of control doesn't mean very much if you don't ask who profits from it's existence. Capra (2002), looks at bio-technology and it was the most intriguing by far of the book. He dealt what he terms the 'central dogma' of which genetic engineering is based, that is the idea that individual genes directly determine biological traits and behaviors. In a sense genetic engineering is applied biological determinism. Capra tackles the issue head on, detailing the complex inter-relationships between genes, organism and the environment at large. Quoting extensively from those molecular biologists who are questioning this dogma, he shows not only that biological determinism, is simplistic and not supported by the scientific evidence, he also shows that bio-engineering and genetic modification are deeply suspect and dangerous technologies. 5

In looking at globalization the book returns once more to what he considers a key question, and that is the question of values. He views globalization, and the ills it produces, as being a primary consequence of a 'money is the measure of all things' mentality. Changing this value system becomes, therefore, the focus of attention. The examples he gives of communities that are engaging in ecologically conscious production are technologically inspiring, but they do not change the fundamental facts of class, economics and power. Critical Analysis by The Reviewer One point scored by Fritjof Capra (2002), that one can subscribed to vehemently is the opinion that the central value of money goes hand in hand with the glorification of material consumption. This is Owing to societal inability to query the source of ill gotten wealth of members and frown upon such undesirable conduct, but instead brand such miscreants as being successful in life. The inevitable of this is the gargantuan white collar and political-financial malfeasance that we see around. If for instance, our leaders all over and particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa can punish people who loot from the corporate/economys treasury, then the motivation to illegitimately accumulate capital in expectant of glorification will evaporate. It is significantly unfair for Fritjof Capra to assume that the object of global capitalism contrast sharply with ecological sustainability. This is in view of the fact that proponent of wealth creation strongly recommends that it is done in the interest of environmental sustainability. This is why the UN MDGs incorporates environmental sustainability in its quest for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Notwithstanding this, it is imperative to assert that in an attempt of optimizing wealth, power and global capitalism; the danger that the ecology may be bruised is high. For instance in most part of Africa where small scale mining is imminent the levels of ecological degradation are unimaginable with central governments only being helpless and playing rhetoric. This is wiping away arable land and the fear is that sooner than later cost of living will be extremely high in such economies as a result of famine. Of utmost importance is to increase the awareness of the need to preserve the ecology for future generations as we battle to meet the preference of the rapidly growing population of the world; this fritjof Capra admits by asserting in page 267 of his book that the transition to the sustainable world will not be easy and that gradual changes will be insufficient to turn the tide.

It is therefore not entirely true to posit that global capitalism is not ecologically and socially unsustainable nor development occurs in bondage as asserted; neither are the goals of global capitalism in collision with the aims of eco-design by Fritjof Capra. In pages 262 263, Capra assailed USA when he opined that USA is advocating for free trade, free markets and portraying material acquisition as a basic human right with the view to accumulating adequate capital that will serve as a catalyst in empowering and developing its state and private institutions to be extremely influential. It is essential to accentuate that the advocacy for development in freedom, free trade and free market is a backstopping channel as well as immerse opportunities for the weaker economies in the world to acquire wealth and know how, optimize their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), improve their Balance of Payment (BOP) and accounting returns, so that human dignity will be highly acknowledge since the standard of living will significantly be high. A clear case in point is that in Ghana the preliminary estimate of total merchandise exports for the first three months of 2012 is US$3.8 billion, indicating a year-on-year growth of 22.8 per cent. The growth in export earnings continues to be driven by gold, cocoa beans and crude oil. Exports of gold amounted to US$1.5 billion, cocoa beans US$939.8 million and crude oil US$689.6 million. Other exports, including non-traditional exports, amounted to US$675.2 million during the period. www.bog.gov.gh/privatecontent/MPC_Press_Releases/50th_MPC_Press_release_Final_Copy.pdf. Thus global capitalism should not be considered as threat in any way to our biodiversity as contended by Capra. Sight should not be lost on the fact that there are stringent requirement incorporated in free trade and access to market, and its all because ecological protection is to be adhered to. Therefore the use of chemicals in production should be used responsibly else products to the world market will be rejected. Other ways of ensuring ecological sustainability is the strict conformance to certification and traceability these are all to improve ecological literacy. For example cocoa beans to the world market will be rejected if it was produce with the use of child labour and more importantly if environmental sustainability principles were not adhered to strictly. Strengths It is significant to note that Capra credited the works of many scholars he used in his summaries and analysis. It is imperative to note that Fritjof Capra cited authorities in buttressing his arguments and this is evident when in chapter one he cited Vandana Shivas remark (Resources move from the poor to the rich and pollution moves from the rich to the poor) on contrasting goal 7

of wealth creation and ecological sustainability; Harold Morowitzs contention on distinguishing between two kinds of cellular simplicity in illustrating his point about living organisms being either single cell or multicellular; and Pier Luigi Luisis (a biochemist) position on DNAcentred view and the cell-centred view as representing two main philosophical and experimental streams in life sciences today to support his notion that molecular structures of the cell are not sufficient for the definition of life in page 7; and in part two of his book, he acknowledged Orgainsational Theroist Gareth Morgan view on management theory and practice; Frederick Taylors view on management; Peter Senge and Arie de Geus on management among others. Weaknesses One limitation of The Hidden Connections is that Capra was prejudiced in his presentation since it was most often than not skewed toward the physical sciences. This is understandable owing to his professional background as a scientist. In many respects part one of the book seemingly looks not lucid since Capra appears to flutter from one thing to the other without full details. One staunch point is that, in spite of Capras intent and remarkable efforts to present a unified life, mind and society, the inability of his book to address the concept of life to the fullest of human depth limits the scale to which that object was attained. This is because he constricted his argument exclusively in scientific viewpoint and this does not offer comprehensive comprehension about the integration of life, mind and society. How Well Has The Book Achieved Its Goal? In an attempt to achieve the objectives of the book by Capra, he formulated a theoretical framework in three chapters in part one and the spotlight of this was to attain his objective of presenting unified view of life, mind and society. Again, chapters five and seven of the book was a linchpin with the view to meeting the goal of developing a coherent, systemic approach to some of the critical issues of today. In Capras effort to attain the central insight of his unified systematic understanding of life, he showed how in all spheres of life, mechanism of living systems are interlinked in networked formed. He demonstrated in page 262 of his book how information age, social functions and processes are gradually more organized around networks. He cited financial markets, corporations and media among others that are all interconnected as a result of technology in the form of internet or powerful search engines like Google

In an attempt to achieve the objective of presenting a unified view of life, mind and society and also to develop a coherent, systematic approach to some critical issues of our time, Capra proposes that business systems should be re-designed to reflect ecological sustainability. This is because the principles of organization of ecosystem which are the basis of sustainability are identical to the principles of organization of all living systems. Thus human organization (business entities) as living systems should have biodiversity protection inbuilt in their business strategy as a channel to promote sustainability. This is a sure way of integrating the biological, cognitive, and social dimensions of life into science of sustainability. With this animals who depends on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy will be content, and plants who depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals will be equally will be content as well as home sapiens who depends of the carbon dioxide of plant for their oxygen needs will also be satisfied for long term survival. To this extent one can contentedly affirm that the objective of The Hidden Connections was attained How The Book Could Affect Peoples Life and Surroundings Reading and appraising the book titled The Hidden Connections by Fritjof, Capra (2002), will be exceedingly enriching on all fronts. It is imperative to underscore that it is most likely to provide readers with a rich source of knowledge, valuable learning opportunities for their professional and personal development. Experiential evaluation of the book will offer the readers the opportunity to develop and leverage their questioning skills, analytical skills, research skills, information management skills, communication skills, management skills, organization skills to construct synergy in problem solving activities. Reading and reviewing the book will offer one vision and attitude towards a subject and towards people and built ones self-confidence. This intellectual voyage will set a new base for lifelong learning which will be very helpful in the readers career. The hard work and the challenges encountered in the reading and reviewing journey could forged a new character in readers. Readers could benefit from this evaluation via building of new and relevant skills of solving strategic problems. Ultimately this book evaluation could be a conceptual watershed and empower readers to take advantage of the enormous array of resources from the world environment to help eliminate the current continuum of poverty and limitations.

It is insightful to mention that the Book has fundamentally, in most cases reinforced and in less cases changed readers thoughts on some concepts Capra discussed, a shining example is how society brand wealthier people to be successful to the level that ethics and morals in creating wealth has been rubbished. It must be said that I have also profited from some concepts I virtually had no knowledge about. In view of this I strongly recommend to all and sundry to critically read this Book. Conclusion The sustainability debate is now growing in intensity as scientists send out conflicting information and opposition from vested interests and ideologies comes into focus. Now the challenge is to demonstrate that sustainability makes a real difference a difference to farmers incomes, to working conditions, to the environment, and in the availability of raw materials and agricultural products for future generations. No individual organism can exist in isolation; there is interdependences among plant, animal and human. The activities of membrane and a cell wall help to maintain the cell as a distinct entity and protect it from harmful environment influence. This is an extremely interesting book, and the tools that Capra applies to analysing problems are powerful in exposing the structures and activities of global capitalism, but at the end of the day there is a reluctance to address the nature of capitalism itself. A brilliant, incisive examination of the relationship between science and our social systems, The Hidden Connections will ignite enormous debate in the scientific community and stir us to re- think about the potential of humanity in an innovative approach. It is instructive to assert that this book improves the analytical ability of readers to understand various peoples and to apply the concept of character to practical challenges. It is significant to surmise that this book integrates science into social change in all human endeavours. A brilliant, incisive assessment of the relationship between science and our social systems, The Hidden Connections will ignite enormous debate in the scientific world and inspire us to reflect about the future of humankind with a fresh approach.

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