The Postnormal Times Reader

Postnormal times are best defined as ‘an in-between period where old orthodoxies are dying, new ones have yet to be born, and very few things seem to make sense’. or, as Ezio Mauro puts it: ‘we are hanging between the “no longer” and the “not yet” and thus we are necessary unstable –nothing around us is fixed, not even our direction of travel.’

The postnormal times theory attempts to make sense of a rapidly changing world, where uncertainty is the dominant theme and ignorance has become a valuable community. The Postnormal Times Reader is a pioneering anthology of writings on the contradictory, complex and chaotic nature of our era. It covers the origins, theory and methods of postnormal times; and examines a host of issues, ranging from climate change, governance, Middle East to religion and science, from the perspective of postnormal times. By mapping some of the key local and global issues of our transitional age, the Reader suggests a way of navigating our turbulent futures.