Living Make-Belief: Thriving in a Dream Society

This book shows how multiple developments have caused the world to move from "an information society" to a "dream society". Ongoing social and technological forces are pushing us from a world of words, rationality, and truth into a world of images, performance, and make-belief. Rather than deny or reject this transformation, this book argues that one should understand and embrace it as waves of new futures that the world must strive to surf for fame and fun. As a political scientist and futurist, the author also offers hints of new goals and forms of governance fit for a dream society, as he demonstrates that all current systems are ineffective and dangerously obsolete. This book is of great interest to political philosophers, futures scientists, sociologists, and those interested in cultural studies.

Auteur

James Allen (Jim) Dator is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Core Lecturer, Space Humanities, International Space University, Strasbourg, France; Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Futures Strategy, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Daejeon, Korea, and former President, World Futures Studies Federation. He also taught at Rikkyo University (Tokyo, for six years), the University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, the University of Toronto, and the InterUniversity Consortium for Postgraduate Studies in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia.

BA in Ancient and Medieval History and Philosophy from Stetson University, an MA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Political Science from The American University. Post-graduate work at Virginia Theological Seminary (Systematic Theology, Ethics, and Church History),Yale University (Japanese Language), The University of Michigan (Linguistics and Survey Research Methods), Southern Methodist University (Mathematical Applications in Political Science). A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a Danforth Fellow, and a Fulbright Fellow.

Recent books authored:

Beyond Identities: Human Becomings in Weirding Worlds. Springer Press, 2022.

Jim Dator: A noticer in time. Selected work, 1967-2018. Springer Press, 2019.

*Mutative Media: Communication Technologies and Power Relations in the Past, Present and Futures (*with John Sweeney and Aubrey Yee). Springer Press, 2014.