Global Business Network

Alexandre Enkerli (alexandre.enkerli@IMM.UNIL.CH)
Wed, 16 Nov 1994 11:04:37 +0100

Hi. I've read something about a so-called Global Business Network lately
and although I usually don't give much about articles I read, I find this
one is interesting. It was in this month's issue of WIred, the
Net-oriented magazine.
As the article describes it, GBN seems like a large group of people making
decisions about the World's future. Their line of thought is directed to
non-linear prediction of the future in which almost "everything is
possible", a method that they call "scenario planning". The article even
provides three scenarii that seem to be connected to the group but are not
directly related to the rest of the article as such and are not "official".

The group is formed of artists, scholars, scientists, economists etc. but
mostly WASP males.
What interests me in this is that their line of thought is somewhat similar
to anthropological thought. Eventhough I don't really agree with them
(they investigate corporate-business-global-market-economy which is not
exactly what I like most in life) I find that interesting, as any kind of
"non-linear thinking".
Also, although I didn't see many anthros mentioned, somewhere in the
article, someone says that, among the members there are anthropologists.
What I would like to know is, first, if any of you knows about this
organisation and, if so, what do you think of it.
My naivety (sp?) lets me believe anthropology can be of some help to a
"different" view of the future. I might be wrong but if someone gives it a
try, it could be very interesting.
I don't want to begin a discussion about politics, it wouldn't be the place
for it. But I think that our scientific curiosity about human life is
excited in that kind of enquiry...

Alexandre Enkerli aenkerli@imm.unil.ch (Unil-LAIP Lausanne) ___________
enkerlia@ere.umontreal.ca (UdeM Dept. d'Anthropologie Montreal) ____ ____
"Doue d'une naivete permanente, il vivait plus que les autres."
___ o ___
Boris Vian /Une penible histoire/ in _Le loup-garou_ (1970:126) __ o o __