fRAGmentation

This is our world, a tapestry woven with threads of diversity and division. As we journey in this book through the complexities of our world, we critically explore fragmentation in the physical, holistic human, digital, narrative/art, and societal domains. In the past three centuries, life on Planet Earth transformed beyond imagination. We now know that our understanding of fragmentation in the natural and the constructed worlds enables what we choose to create. Examine with us how fragmentation impacts the nature of global change in economies, governance, the cultivation of sustenance, health, safety, and security, and our capacities for communicating, interacting, learning, and building together. Delving into societal political fragmentation, we address the erosion of trust, fictionally exploring the advantages of fragmentation of an autocratic form of government, noting the targeting of education to maintain authors, and addressing the intentional and purposeful fragmentation approach-in the name of efficiency-currently underway in the U.S. government to undermine and/'or dismantle the structures and practices that traditionally promote social cohesion. Discover how fragmentation impacts both chaos and progress. The 20th Century began with half of the labor force in agriculture. By the end of the century, that was reduced by manufacturing and knowledge work to less than three percent. In this 21st Century, the intelligent and positive use of fragmentation will accelerate our ability to leverage it in every dimension of the human experience.