By Disaster or by Co-Design?

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 one which this book seeks to answer. In so doing, 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.How can we overcome the current polycrisis? Certainly not through more of the same – more growth and more progress. 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, grounded in broad coalitions and new alliances, including citizen–public partnerships.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.In this work, Davide Brocchi brings together theory and practice to offer a fresh perspective and practical impulses for co-creating change rather than enduring it.