Mon. Dec 11th, 2023

Common Alternatives

Creating Futures Beyond Capital and Carbon

Deliberating Alternative Futures: Beyond Pluriverse

Deliberating Alternative Futures

In response to the inadequate corporate-state responses to our global challenges, we are witnessing an explosion of self-motivated communal, grassroots initiatives and social movements pushing for more meaningful systemic transitions and transformative agendas. Modern societies are characterised by their fundamental dependence on (1) Capital replacing labor as the ultimate source of value; (2) Carbon – fossil fuels or more generally speaking, extractivism; (3) Compulsive economic growth through relentless commodification of socio-ecological relations and a multi-century mass appropriation of the commons, sustained through the constant promotion of consumerist cultures across the world; (4) Coloniality, i.e. the ongoing stratifying power relations and epistemes necessary for maintaining the integrity of intersectional hierarchies; and finally (5) Corruptive politics, energized by the rise of monopoly-finance capital, corporate-state interest-driven advances in surveillance, datafication, bio- and neuro-technology, and warfare. We call the above 5Cs, the five intrinsic characterizers of today’s world civilization system (Hosseini, 2020).

Alternative Futures Research Hub (AFRHub)

The question of what kind of new civilizational forms, both at the local and global levels, should or would ultimately replace the currently failing ones signifies the urgency of promoting utopian visions based on profoundly different perceptions of civilization. Indeed, we need to ‘re-imagine civilization’ anew. To be originative, the new movements need to address the major elements of what constitutes a self-sustaining civilization.

👉READ MORE ABOUT THE HUB HERE👈

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Learn about the aims, background, methodology, funding sources and the findings of the project

PUBLICATIONS

See the publication outcomes of the project

Events and Presentations

See the list of public presentations, workshopts, seminars, symposiums and webinars

Transitional & Reformist Alternatives

Fieldwork Site 1

Progressive Alternatives to Liberal Democracy & Populism

Fieldwork Site 2

Progressive Alternatives to Capitalist Economies

Fieldwork Site 3

Ecocentric Alternatives

Fieldwork Site 4

MEET OUR TEAM

Passionately committed to help communities build their own futures free from the commodification of humanity

Chief Investigator: Dr S A Hamed Hosseini

Senior Lecturer, Sociology and Anthropology, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Chief Investigator: A./Prof. James Goodman

Associate Professor, Social and Political Science, The University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Chief Investigator: Prof. Verity Burgmann

Professor, Politics and International Relations, Monash University, Australia

Chief Investigator: Dr Elizabeth Humphries

Scholarly Teaching Fellow, School of Communication, The University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Partner Investigator: Prof. Barry K. Gills

Professor, Development Studies, The University of Helsinki, Finland

Partner Investigator: Professor Heikki Patomaki

Professor, World Politics, The University of Helsinki, Finland

Partner Investigator: Prof. William Carroll

Professor, Sociology, University of Victoria, Canada

Partner Investigator: Prof. Teivo Teivainen

Professor, World Politics, The University of Helsinki, Finland

Partner Investigator: Dr Thomas Muhr

Assistant Professor, Social Development and Policy,  Habib University, Pakistan

Partner Investigator: Dr Karen Buckley

Hallsworth Research Fellow, The University of Manchester, UK

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Partner Institutions

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