Review: General: The Ingenuity Gap
| Author | Michael Dartnell |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600122 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
On
the
other
hand,
the
economic
and
political
consequences
for
China
of
Southeast
Asian
ethnic
Chinese
are
part
and
parcel
of
the
consequences
of
reform in
general.
Foreign
direct
investment
(FDI)
is
a
portion
of
this
larger
package;
FDI
by
ethnic
Chinese
a
portion
of
the
portion,
and
FDI
by
Southeast
Asia's
ethnic
Chinese
a
small
portion
of
that
portion.
Bolt
makes
extensive
use
of
the
growing
body
of
impressive
Chinese
scholarship
on
Overseas
Chinese
issues.
His
decision
not
to
engage
the
more sophisticated
recent
literature
on
the
Overseas
Chinese,
exempli-
fied
by
Aihwa
Ong
and
Donald
Nonini's
Ungrounded
Empires,
is
rea-
sonable
given
that
his
apparent
intended
audience
is
the
general
read-
er.
Those
whose
curiosity
is piqued
may
well
find
this
field
of
diasporic
identities
and
transnational
subjectivities
more
accessible
for
having
reached
it
through
Bolt.
Michael
Szonyi/University
of
Toronto
THE
INGENUITY
GAP
How
can
we solve
the
problems
of
the
future?
Thomas
Homer-Dixon
New
York
and
Toronto:
Alfred
A.
Knopf,
2000,
480
pp,
$37.95,
ISBN
0-676-47148-2
This
thoughtful
and
timely
book
speaks
to
one
of
the
central anxieties
of
our
age:
are
we
still
able
to
control
the
trajectory
of
human
develop-
ment?
Thomas
Homer-Dixon,
a
professor
of
political
science and
director
of
the
Peace
and
Conflict
Studies
Program
at
the University
of
Toronto,
has
a
long-term
interest
in
human adaptability
to
rapid
change. His
work
on
the
relationship
between
ecological
issues
and
social
and
political
violence
(Environment,
Scarcity
and
Violence,
Princeton
University
Press
1999)
links
environmental
issues
to the
complexity
of
contemporary conflict.
The
Ingenuity
Gap
follows
the
logic
of
that
book,
with
a
broader
scope
and
deeper
reflection.
The
book
is
organized
around
a
series
of
questions. How
is
the
human-planet
relationship
altering?
Will
more
ingenuity
solve
prob-
lems?
Are
human
beings
ingenious
enough
to
meet
the
challenge,
and,
if
not,
how
will
the
shortfall
between
global
problems
and
adaptability
play
itself
out?
By
addressing
'ingenuity'
or
'ideas
that
can
be
applied
to
solve
practical
technical
and
social
problems'
(p
21),
Homer-Dixon
points
to
what German
philosophers
Max
Horkheimer and
Theodor
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter2000-2001
181
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