[p2p-research] How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Paul,

your perspective on this, for publication in the blog, would be highly
appreciated,

Michel

*Article: How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse. By John
Michael Greer*

URL = http://www.ecoshock.org/transcripts/greer_on_collapse.pdf
Abstract

The collapse of complex human societies remains poorly understood and
current theories fail to model important features of historical examples of
collapse.

Relationships among resources, capital, waste, and production form the basis
for an ecological model of collapse in which production fails to meet
maintenance requirements for existing capital. Societies facing such crises
after having depleted essential resources risk catabolic collapse, a
self-reinforcing cycle of contraction converting most capital to waste. This
model allows key features of historical examples of collapse to be accounted
for, and suggests parallels between successional processes in nonhuman
ecosystems and collapse phenomena in human societies.


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