Social Order and Governance Archives

Unlearning Modernity: Remaking Science Education in the Anthropocene

This comment argues that science education remains rooted in modernist assumptions of control, separability, and human exceptionalism, even as it is often framed as a response to the Anthropocene, despite emerging scientific fields increasingly emphasising relationality, uncertainty, and more-than-human forms of intelligence. Drawing on developments in areas such as holobiont biology, quantum science, and anticolonial […]

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Political Organizing and Global Catastrophic Risk

The author argues that achieving major policy wins on global catastrophic risk requires political organising: the process by which groups of citizens come together to build the capacity for sustained, sophisticated civic advocacy. Drawing on the 1980s Nuclear Freeze Campaign as a case study, the author contends that decentralised structures that empower local groups and

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The Global Justice Report: A Plan for Equality & Prosperity Within Planetary

The Global Justice Report proposes a fully quantified plan for grounding human development and equality in planetary habitability, tracing an economically and ecologically consistent transition path from 2026 to 2100. The authors argue that reconciling planetary habitability with high well-being for all is possible, but only through an integrated strategy that simultaneously combines fast decarbonisation

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Addressing the Polycrisis through Multi-Stakeholder Landscape Partnerships and the Rise of a Landscape Support System

In this seminar, Dr. Sara Scherr examines integrated landscape management (ILM) as a response to the ongoing polycrisis, arguing that it integrates healthy nature, regenerative economies, human well-being, and social solidarity in ways that empower local actors. Dr.Scherr finds that multi-stakeholder landscape partnerships have proliferated over recent decades, supported by growing knowledge, planning tools, and

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Why this Age of Polycrisis Demands a New Kind of Peace

The author argues that the contemporary polycrisis, characterized by escalating geopolitical tensions, ecological breakdown, growing inequality, and democratic fragility, requires a fundamental rethinking of peace. Rather than defining peace solely as the absence of war, the article advances the concept of planetary peace, a holistic framework that links peace within individuals, among societies, and with

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Twenty-First Century European B/Orders and Transborder Living-Spaces in Times of Polycrisis

This introduction to the special issue on 21st century European b/orders and transborder living-spaces in times of crisis discusses contemporary dynamics of re-bordering in Europe in the course of the polycrisis. The authors argue that what was once a model of cross-border integration, in which border regions served as laboratories for multilevel governance and transborder

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Fractured Reality

This report examines the evolving impact of digital technologies on European democracy, arguing that platforms algorithmically privilege negative and conflictual content, fragmenting shared reality into what the authors term a “fantasy-industrial complex,” while foreign control of dominant digital infrastructure exposes democratic discourse to direct and indirect interference. The report presents recommendations from fostering alternative public

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Beyond Climate: Sketching the Anatomy of our Polycrisis and Reflecting on Solutions

This article argues that climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequity form an interconnected polycrisis driven by shared underlying causes and mutually reinforcing dynamics. It shows how environmental degradation and social inequity interact across systems, with high-income populations contributing disproportionately to these crises while experiencing fewer of their impacts. The article emphasizes that addressing this

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Dynamics of Polycrisis 2.0

This commentary reviews fifteen continuing dynamics of the polycrisis and examines how they have changed over the past year. It argues that global instability is increasingly driven by the interaction of multiple reinforcing crises, including proliferating armed conflicts, escalating geopolitical rivalry, the breakdown of international cooperation, rising inequality, democratic backsliding, and intensifying climate disruption. The

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Flattening the Curve on Societal Crisis: Lessons from History

The authors argue that today’s polycrisis, marked by climate change, inequality, and institutional fragility, echoes recurrent structural challenges seen throughout history. While most historical crises led to violence and collapse, a small number were successfully averted through transformative reforms. Drawing on these rare cases, the authors outline three critical policy lessons: reverse rising inequality to

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