Jeffrey C. Alexander & Piotr Sztompka 
Rethinking Progress [PDF ebook] 
Movements, Forces, and Ideas at the End of the Twentieth Century

Rethinking Progress provides a challenging reevaluation of one of the crucial ideas of Western civilization; the notion of progress. Progress often seems to have become self-defeating, producing ecological deserts, overpopulated cities, exhausted resources, decaying cultures, and widespread feelings of alienation. The contributors, from all over the world, present their diversified perspectives on the fate of progress.