Book Club

Are you our next Sustainable Society (SuSo) book reviewer?
Academic articles usually have rather disciplinary and specialised target audiences. Books, however, often play an important role in the wider societal debates. Within the SuSo community, we feel it is important to see which books relate to our theme. By writing and publishing book reviews, we bring books to the fore others might miss, we share our opinions, we trigger new interests, and we find likeminded people who think about similar issues. This way, we further develop our discussion and our community. But maybe even better, it is fun!

Our editorial committee consists of 3 editors at the moment; Kees van Veen, SuSo’s scientific director, Francisca Wals Ma MSc, PhD student Faculty of Philosophy and Astrid Bakker, SuSo’s secretary. Will you be our new editor? Send an email to Astrid Bakker; sustainablesociety rug.nl

Who can apply?
Anyone within the UG with an interest in the SuSo theme can volunteer to review a book. If you are the first to claim a book, and the SuSo book review editors think it fits the SuSo purposes, you get the book from us for free. If your book review is published on our website, you receive another book voucher of €25,- for buying your next book.

Which books are eligible?
Essentially any non-fiction book that plays a role in the public arena is eligible, as long as it is related to the SuSo theme and might be reasonably interesting for other members of the SuSo community. The more recent the book, the better. For inspiration of what sort of books are interesting from a SuSo perspective, you can take a look at previous book reviews and on the list below with suggested books. If you have read one of the books on the list or would like to read one or you have a book in mind, send an email to us; sustainablesociety@rug.nl.

Current book suggestions are:

• Thomas Piketty (2019): Capital and Ideology: Geography, Technology, and Institutions
• Jeffrey J. Sachs (2020): The Ages of Globalization
• Jon Coaffee (2019): Future Proof: How to build resilience in an uncertain world
• Mauro Guillen (2020) 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything
• Amos Owen Thomas (2020): Shadow Trades: The Dark Side of Global Business

Indications for the book review:

1. Clarify the link to the SuSo theme.
2. Include an overview of the main arguments and general line of thought of the book (without going into too much detail).
3. State to which academic and/or societal debate(s) the book is a contribution.
4. Specify the audiences for which the book is interesting to read.
5. Explain why the book is interesting; what it adds to existing bodies of literature; why the analysis is original (if it is) and what your personal opinion is.
6. Name what the book brought you in terms of insights; and state whether the book brought you anything more in terms of new insights/reflections/inspiration that goes beyond the scope of the book.
7. Make proper references to the book (and other books you use in the text).
8. Make sure your name, position, email, and profile page link are present.
9. Use no more than 1500 words.

Get in touch
If you have any questions about the Book Club, please do not hesitate to contact us via sustainablesociety rug.nl.