Club of Rome

The Club of Rome was founded in April 1968 by Dr. Aurelio Peccei. Aurelio invited a group of thirty individuals from ten countries-scientists, educators, economists, humanists, industrialists, and national and international civil servants-gathered in the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. Aurelio was an Italian industrial manager, economist, and man of vision, to discuss a subject of staggering scope-the present and future predicament of man. Out of this meeting grew The Club of Rome.

Hasan Özbekhan was one of the first Executive Directors of the Club and he led the drafting of the first report of the Club, known as The Predicament of Mankind: A Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-Wide Complexities and Uncertainties.

Extract from A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures Anthony Judge (March, 2010) wrote the following concerning the early days of the Club of Rome: The first “Report to the Club of Rome” arose from a project falling directly under the cognizance of the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome during its formative stages. The Executive Committee had asked the Institute Battelle at Geneva to provide administrative support and act as managing agency for a project Work Group and asked Hasan Ozbekhan to undertake the overall direction of the project and ensure the operational responsibility for the Work Group, calling on consultants as required to transform the prospectus into an action plan. The consultants included Alexander Christakis, Erich Jantsch, and Aurelio Peccei. The “prospectus” in the form of a “Report to the Club of Rome” was entitled: The Predicament for Mankind: Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-wide Complexities and Uncertainties (1970), its proposals were rejected in favor of the “Club of Rome Project on Predicament of Mankind at MIT” directed by Dennis Meadows from 1970-1972. This resulted in publication of what became known as the first report to the Club of Rome (The Limits to Growth, 1972). A distinct report was later published by Hasan Ozbekhan (The Predicament of Mankind, in: C. West Churchman and Richard O. Mason, eds., World Modeling: A Dialogue, North-Holland, 1976).

References

• Ozbekhan, H. (1970) The Predicament of Mankind: A Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-Wide Complexities and Uncertainties. Proposal to the Club of Rome.
• https://collections.dartmouth.edu/content/deliver/inline/meadows/pdf/meadows_ltg-001.pdf
• Christakis, A. N. (1988). The Club of Rome revisited in: General Systems. W. J. Reckmeyer (ed.), International Society for the Systems Sciences, Vol. XXXI, pp. 35-38, New York.
• Flanagan, T. R., Bausch, K. C., & McDonald, J. W. (2011). A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures: a workbook for addressing the global problematique. Riverdale: Ongoing Emergence Press.