Short- vs long-term vs the middle-ground in critical socioeconomic and environmental planning

Abstract

Roman Krznaric’s The Good Ancestor provides an account of how temporal thinking drives critical global planning. In particular, Krznaric denotes the effect of extensive short-term thinking, i.e. thinking driven by achieving goals in a present-day sense or a singular generational time frame. These goals may include garnering socio-political advocacy and those agendas driven by tangible economic and financial gains. Furthermore, Krznaric highlights how shortterm thinking and policy developed with these kinds of considerations have a negative impact on the earth’s natural environment.