Learning to Learn: North's Response to the New International Economic Order

Abstract

From the vantage point of mid-1970s, the author looks back a hundred years, to see the global social change that occurred during this period in perspective, and then forward a hundred years, to be able to foresee where the global order may be heading. By choosing this particular vantage point, she emphasizes the transitional nature of the 1970s, when the seed is being sown but the sprout is yet to show up. And by choosing a 200-year time-frame, she recognizes that a period of less than 100 years is apt to distort the view of the past with one's prejudices as it is apt to colour the view of the future with one's wishes. Arising from the experience of colonialism and decolonization syndrome, both North and South have entered a phase of prolonged crisis that may as well help as hinder both in meeting it with the right response. There are, however, signs that a process of what is at once learning and teaching is under way - in other words, a dialogue as between equals - which, when brought to fructification, may indeed usher in a new global order. The author takes a hundred-year leap forward for a look-see of the world as it might be in the year 2075.