By Disaster or by Co-Design? : Sustainability Transformation as Social and Cultural Challenge

Since neither the state nor the market can adequately address the major challenges of this century, a sustainability transformation requires a radical democratisation of democracy – starting locally, based on broad social movements and new alliances.

How can we live together peacefully in all our diversity on a finite planet? This is one of the central questions of our century – and of this book. It reveals why today’s environmental crisis, economic instability, democratic erosion, and international conflicts are symptoms of the same development logic and have deep cultural roots. Border walls and defence strategies will not shield us from this growing disorder, since its key drivers lie within our own society. Neither artificial intelligence nor electric vehicles will save the world. This book proposes an expanded understanding of sustainability – closely linked with resilience and a good life that does not come at the expense of others. Sustainability requires cooperation over competition, a plural economy instead of a neoliberal monoculture, and bridges instead of walls. Since neither the state nor the market can adequately address the major challenges of this century, a sustainability transformation requires a radical democratisation of democracy – starting locally, based on broad social movements and new alliances. Every great transformation in human history has been preceded and accompanied by a cultural revolution. This book shows why the same holds true for the sustainability transformation – and why education, science, the arts, and the media play a central role in it. Davide Brocchi offers a fresh perspective and practical impulses for co-creating change rather than enduring it.