# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Society for Environmental History - race and environment series

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Race and the Environment Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity are organizing the webinars.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Leap exists to inject new urgency and bold ideas into confronting the intersecting crises of our time: climate change, racism and inequality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ruha Benjamin (Princeton University)
Your people will change.
Your young will be more like us and ours more like you.
Your hierarchical tendencies will be modified and
if we learn to regenerate limbs and reshape our bodies,
we'll share those abilities with you.

-Octavia Butler, Dawn
There is never time in the future
in which we will work out our salvation.
The challenge is in the moment.
The time is always now.
-James Baldwin

It is 2064. A bioReparations initiative that allows victims of police brutality to regenerate organs is well underway. A major new component of the initiative will be unveiled for the 50th anniversary of the Ferguson uprising, but the largest biobank in the country has been repeatedly hit by raiders intent on selling stem cells on the white market. Aiyana Jones and her team of Risers have to find a way to secure the cell depository and revitalize the movement.

Lights, hammer, action.

Seconds before the lightning strike, Aiyana wrestled herself awake. Chest pounding and sweat circling her neck, she struggled to make out what happened. Footsteps overhead. Channels flipping. Smothered voices. And lightning, always lightning headed directly towards her forehead.

The Humanity+ counselor kept telling her not to worry. "Chronic dreams are perfectly normal, a symptom from the previous life. They'll fade with time." But it's been ten years, and they are only getting more vivid.

"Lights, camera, action," Aiyana heard it clearly this time. A film crew was shooting her while she slept, however little sense that made. Maybe entertainment executives had started mining people's inner lives, piped dreams, because reality had become so predictable.

Stuffing her head under the pillow to avoid the crawl of sunlight across the room, Aiyana's thoughts drifted - For all their high tech gadgets, why hadn't the Humanity+ engineers created an antidote for these leftover lives? How hard could it be to develop a vacuum to suck up these memory crumbs? After all, there must be side effects to almost getting struck by lightning night after night.

Just then the bank alarm screeched across Aiyana's wrist, wrenching her awake. A third break-in attempt this month. She sat up, hopping into her chair so fast she knocked the stack of reGeneration flyers off her nightstand:

Whoever said time heals
Never had a tumor
Growing inside their belly
Mistaken for a child.
Are you a victim of reverse regeneration?
Get exactly what you deserve on the white market!
Two for one special-livers, kidneys, hearts
grown to order.
As many times as she read it, it was no less disturbing. What hope, delusion, or mix of both would lead anyone to ignore the lack of movement? And why devise such a dismal slogan for the occasion, one meant to inspire?

Gliding out of the door, Aiyana tapped her wrist to check the status of the rest of her team. The only other people moving around Grand Ave so early on a Saturday were the farmer's market vendors who raced for the best parking spots under I-580 to make it easier to unload. If she had more time, Aiyana would have stopped at the coffee stand, but in the distance she could see the first burst of orange and fuchsia on Lake Merritt. She pressed the "aqua accelerate" option on her chair, sped over the water through downtown Oakland, and over the Oscar Grant Memorial Bridge until she reached the SF bioDistrict.

As usual, Aiyana arrived at the bank first. She circled the perimeter a few times, ensuring that all the cryotanks were secure, and collected footage from the bank's eye that would hopefully offer some clues. As she made her way towards the atrium, she saw that one of the walls across from the bank entrance was tagged with an advertisement that was popping up all around the Bay:

The raiders, it seemed, were becoming more relentless as the 50 th reGeneration drew closer. "How long until they realized stem cells were not the only things being kept alive at the facility?" she wondered.

Eventually, the rest of the team arrived, the silent screech of the bank alarm still ricocheting inside their heads.

"It's desperation mixed with greed," Tamir quipped. "The worst of all possible combos."

"The reverse regeneration backlash is in hyperdrive," Rekia added. "Even so-called allies who backed the Reparations Act are saying that the Risers have lost touch."

"I think its more economics than ideology", Freddie interrupted. "Have you all been keeping track of white market demand? The street value of cells is off the charts!"

One thing they could agree on, it was getting harder to predict what new scheme the raiders would employ. Surveillance footage turned up nothing. And the #StemCellsMatter feed couldn't be trusted. Raiders had found a way to distort the geo-tracking function, which made intelligence nearly impossible to collect. As Aiyana ran through a checklist of the security matrix, considering all the possible ways it could be hacked, Director Lacks rushed in to the atrium. "How could this have happened again?!" she asked, breathless.

Aiyana reassured her that everything had been reinforced. None of the cryotanks had been touched. All of the tissue had been accounted for, including the ErGa lines needed for tomorrow's revival.

To mark the 50 th Anniversary of the Ferguson uprising, the people's science council was working around the clock to revive one Mr. Eric Garner, the father of six who was choked to death by NYPD officers in 2014. Holding him in cryosleep until all the necessary procedures could be honed, the council was confident that Garner could be resuscitated without incident.

His last words, "I can't breathe", had served as a clarion call for five decades of movement building, so it was only fitting that he attend the reGeneration in person. Assuming, of course, that the multiple stem cell transplants worked. A lot could go wrong. Infections, graft failure, cancers. If successful, he would be the first adult to successfully undergo Doubling-resuscitation and organ renewal. Only children had survived up until that point, and even then, not without complication.

The bioReparations initiative, now in its tenth year, covered the costs of regenerative medicine for victims of police brutality. Researchers had honed a technique in which they could take a mature human cell from a patient and reprogramme it to create any other kind of tissue in the body. And because the regenerated tissue was produced from a person's own cells, they avoided complications that arose with donor cells. Over ten thousand people had undergone this suite of procedures, and nearly all had survived.

In the early days, when news first broke about the reprogramming technique, many people actually started banking their own skin cells - a kind of insurance policy.

That was before the bioReparations initiative led to the official disbanding of police. Those were the days of "every 12 hours"- children playing cops and robbers shot down on playgrounds, teenagers goofing off with toy guns left bleeding in department store aisles, mentally ill adults treated with multiple shots to the head, mowed down for walking, driving, breathing out of place. Phones, wallets, and other objects allegedly mistaken for weapons. Not to mention all the residual damage - chronic stress of living under siege.

(Source: Paul Sableman/Flickr)

When police were forced to wear body cams in 2015, the non-indictments flowed even more freely. They were, after all, responding as they had been trained. "It was never meant to be a fair fight." "Non-lethal force isn't in our repertoire." To indict individual officers would be to admit that the entire apparatus was defective.

The Risers dubbed victims of police violence "AIs", as in, attached incident - their way of countering the ridiculous notion that these were isolated acts of violence. Eventually the staggering number of AIs created a boon for the biobanking sector. Whereas anyone who could afford it could get a transplant, only certified AIs were covered under the Reparations Act of 2025.

Slowly replacing the college fund common in the early part of the century, parents and grandparents now opened tissue accounts for their loved ones. "Don't cell your family short! Bank with us today", read the floating billboards. And although most of the transplant procedures were far too expensive for the average person, monthly payment plans were manageable for most families.

Your ancestors fueled the New World economy,
Just as mitochondria power the cellular body.
Harness your history, transform the biopolity!

Come in for a free consultation
to see if Middle Passage Mitochondria
is right for you.

(Design by Ruha Benjamin, "Cellular memory. Social amnesia" )

By the time the health establishment finally came to grips with the source of most illness, it was nearly too late. The Precision Medical Industry had taken the world by storm, inserting itself in to every conceivable aspect of life. Lobbyists successfully amended ObamaCare, establishing mandatory gene-testing stations alongside all health clinics. Even if you just wanted your blood pressure checked, you had to get your genome mapped first. All the latest drugs were marketed to specific haplogroups. So if you didn't know yours, forget about being treated. And if you couldn't afford a test, you were just out of luck.

Meanwhile, counterfeiting operations that specialized in genome maps flourished. The fact that people were buying knock-off maps to get access to treatments defeated the whole point of precision medicine. It took another decade to establish the people's science council and begin addressing the chronic strain of living under siege.

We are still trying to figure out what to do with all the abandoned testing stations.

(Source: www.urbanghostmedia.com)

Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley Jones, killed by a Detroit SWAT Team in 2010, was the only person who had survived Doubling without debilitating side effects. But she was a child at the time, seven years old when an officer threw a flash grenade where she lay sleeping on her grandmother's couch, before shooting her in the head while a reality TV crew filmed the raid.

When the council woke Aiyana up and implanted a new heart, lungs, and spine, at first there was only a minor graft rejection which transplant specialists were able to control. But then came the seizures, blackouts, and hallucinations, usually involving a lightning strike.

(Source: Robert Pruitt, "Untitled 3")

So with a grant from the Humanity+ Foundation, Aiyana's transplant team designed the first of its kind Chairperson™-an apparatus that not only maintains internal homeostasis so she no longer experiences the original side effects. It also includes a number of augmentations: the ability to hover up to 40mph on land or water. An acute sensitivity to electrical fields, which enhances her ability to communicate, orientate to her surroundings, track things, and protect herself-all welcome side affects, and the gold standard in second life starter kits!

Mr. Garner, on the other hand, was not only going to be the first adult, but one who required multiple regenerated organs a half-century after his first life was stolen.

Waking up would be just the beginning ...

Postscript
Black to the Future: In Memoriam is an ongoing experiment to know things differently. A space to think anew about the themes of my research-innovation, inequity, biotechnology, and memory among them. I am guided in this endeavour by three recent experiences.
is an assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, and a faculty affiliate in the Program on the History of Science, Center for Health and Wellbeing, Program on Gender and Sexuality Studies, Program in Global Health and Health Policy, and the Department of Sociology. She is the author of People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier, as well as a number of other articles and book chapters that examine the relationship between innovation and equity, science and citizenship, health and justice. For more info visit, www.ruhabenjamin.com and Twitter: @ruha9 @Peoples_Science @heal_station.
The first was re-reading W. E. B. Du Bois's short story, The Comet (1920). Set in a dystopian world where the racial status quo is momentarily overturned, it underscores the importance of storytelling in scholarly and civic praxis. The direct link he crafted between sociology and speculative fiction reminded me that we need these windows into alternative realities, even if it is just a glimpse, to challenge ever-present narratives of inevitability as it relates to both technology and society. Stories remind us that the beginning, middle, and the end could all be otherwise.

The second experience that led me to substitute story for essay was listening to writer Ursula Le Guin's National Book Foundation acceptance speech: "I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear- stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries - the realists of a larger reality." Here, here, whispered the young poet I long ago wrapped in layers of scholarly silk awaiting the Academic Afterlife. Her first words upon stepping out of the Tomb of the Learned: Facts, alone, will not save us.

Finally, the third experience was completing my book People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier. Towards the end of the revision process, and buried on page 172, I was finally able to articulate what I now see as the heart of the project: "But somehow imaginations go limp when we are confronted with social dis-order. For many people, the idea that we can defy politics as usual and channel human ingenuity toward more cooperative and inclusive forms of social organization is utterly far-fetched. Thus I am convinced that any institutional retooling must begin by first querying this faith in biological regeneration alongside our underdeveloped belief in social transformation. If our bodies can regenerate, why do we perceive our body politic as so utterly fixed?" This story is an attempt to perceive otherwise, to hold myself accountable to the query I buried in People's Science, to formulate a critique at the power/knowledge nexus through narrative, and ultimately to fetch a different social vision that, even to the author of this tale, feels incredibly far off.

With these provocations, I take the idea of a sociological imagination quite literally, and envisage a not-too-distant future where race, science, and subjectivity are reconfigured differently, defiantly, and hope-fully.

(Artist: John Jennings, "Hands up, We fly")

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to the Histories of the Future conference organizers, Erika Milam and Joanna Radin for incredibly thoughtful feedback, and the following friends and colleagues who commented on earlier versions: Elizabeth Armstrong, Shawn Benjamin, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Catherine Bliss, Emily Brissette, Maryanne Boelcskevy, Zhaleh Boyd, Bridget Gurtler, Tabatha Jones Jolivet, Louis Jordan, Trina Kumodzi, Miatta Mansion, Mandu Reid, Samantha Ayana Smythe, Francoise Verges, Keith Wailoo, Melissa Weiner, and Behin White. Most of all, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of all those mentioned in the story-by including their names my hope is to not only commemorate their lives, but to open a space for these tragedies to hasten collective struggle for justice.

Image Credits:
Paul Sableman/Flickr
www.urbanghostmedia.com
Robert Pruitt, "Untitled 3″
John Jennings, "Hands up, We fly"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ruha Benjamin (Princeton University) Your people will change. Your young will be more like us and ours more like you. Your hierarchical tendencies will be modified and if we learn to regenerate limbs and reshape our bodies, we'll share those abilities with you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Audio Book - Amitav Ghosh's Jungle Nama Narrated by  Ali Sethi | HarperBroadcast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sorry, the page you’re looking for doesn’t seem to exist. If you’re looking for a specific book, you may find it by searching by title or author below:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Brilliant. . . . A haunting and evocative tale, beautifully told." -Hugh Howey, author of Wool

"We haven't read anything like this novel. Ever. South America gave us magical realism-what is Taiwan giving us? A new way of telling our new reality, beautiful, entertaining, frightening, preposterous, true. . . . Wu Ming-Yi treats human vulnerability and the world's vulnerability with fearless tenderness." -Ursula K. Le Guin

"A striking book. . . . It is science fiction . . . in the way that the best Margaret Atwood books are science fiction. . . . I couldn't put it down." -Jason Sheehan, NPR

"Lyrical, haunting. . . . A heady mix of science fiction, fantasy, environmental fable and magical realism, the author had to create a genre entirely new for this singular, captivating book." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Astonishing. . . . A wonderful novel." - The Independent (London)

"An earnest, politically conscious novel, anchored in ecological concerns and Taiwanese identity. . . . Beyond the book's ecological and scientific attributes, you can see a deft novelist's hand at work." -Tash Aw, The Guardian (London)

"Imaginative and moving." - Financial Times

"[Ming-Yi is] reminiscent of Haruki Murakami, twisting the dreamlike into the curiously credible." - Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Rich, dense and dripping with life. The book sings in the key of fable, but with the timbre of reality." -Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Fictional Universe

"An entrancing, multi-faceted elegy. . . . [Ming-Yi writes with] a poet's approach. . . . Full of painful, wonderful beauty." -
"Beautifully written and beautifully translated. . . . [Ming-Yi] guides us to see the entirety of experience as bumping flotsam in an unending ocean of life colliding and making a mess of things or making something new. . . . Lyric, simple, soft, the story crests and recedes and comes back again." - The Bloomington Sun-Current

"[Ming-Yi's] rollercoaster of a story is about wilderness, wildness, wonderment, love. . . . [ The Man with the Compound Eyes includes] perhaps the best writing to ever come out of a Taiwan novel." - Taipei Times

"A gift. . . . Ming-Yi is a naturalist as well as a storyteller, and it is perhaps his greatest achievement that this novel creates a sense of solidarity not only between his human characters, but also between [the] humans and the animals and plants he describes with such fidelity." -
"Offering a heady dose of realism, surrealism, and magic realism, with several shots of allegory, award-winning Chinese author Wu [Ming-Yi] offers a work for 'literary fiction' readers, but not in the snobbish sense. It's really for any curious, intelligent reader." - Library Journal (starred review)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi: 9780345802880 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Brilliant. . . . A haunting and evocative tale, beautifully told." -Hugh Howey, author of Wool "We haven't read anything like this novel. Ever. South America gave us magical realism-what is Taiwan giving us? A new way of telling our new reality, beautiful, entertaining, frightening, preposterous, true. . . .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
When Two Worlds Collide Official Trailer 1 (2016) - Documentary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Following El Salvador's civil war, a farmers' cooperative puts down roots, builds resilience and provides a model of how to mitigate climate change and resist unsustainable, extractive development.
Keepers of the Future
La Coordinadora of El Salvador

"A marginalized peasant community challenges corporate power and takes climate resilience into their own hands...giv[ing] hope to us all." Eric Holt-Gimnez, Executive Director, Food First

In a fertile floodplain in El Salvador, where the great river meets the sea, a peasant movement puts down roots - growing resilience in the scorched earth of exile and civil war. But soon these farmers and fishing folk discover new challenges, and this time they are global: climate crisis, exacerbated by an economy of ruinous extraction. The solutions they come up with will be a revelation for audiences in the prosperous north. On the surface, the life of these campesinos may resemble the past: but in their model may lie the key to the future.
Canadian journalist, media personality and documentarian Avi Lewis, along with his wife, author Naomi Klein, has advocated for radically new social and political structures as the only viable and effective response to climate change. In US Release Date: 2018 Copyright Date: 2017 DVD ISBN: 1-948745-12-7 KEEPERS OF THE FUTURE he profiles the Bajo Lempa coordinadora, a farmers' cooperative that demonstrates how "deep local democracy" can help even a poor population build environmental, economic and political resilience.

Grade Level: 7 - 12, College, Adults

Reviews
"Disaster capitalism runs up against agroecology and community power! Keepers of the Future is a wake-up call for anyone feeling overwhelmed about climate change. A marginalized peasant community challenges corporate power and takes climate resilience into their own hands. A bold, simple, yet powerful tale that gives hope to us all."

Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director, Food First, Author, A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat

"Captivating...What is the exciting about this documentary is the emphasis on Salvadoran people...The activities captured by the film show participatory democracy in action and a critique of human interference in nature... Keepers of the Future sheds light on the real lives of people who want to develop in whichever way they can and regardless of their past experiences."

Vanessa Braga Matijascic, E-International Relations

"Stirring...A valuable classroom teaching resource on topics such as climate resilience and food sovereignty...This documentary offer a refreshing antidote to both dystopian climate futures and degrading stereotypes of Salvadorans that pervade current U.S. immigration debates. Paying attention to movements like La Coordinadora can help spark the sense of urgency and possibility that are vital to building more desirable food futures."

Anelyse Weiler, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies

" Keepers of the Future documents exactly what it takes to transform the world: working cooperatively to care for ourselves and our ecosystems. Those engaged in environmental regeneration and social justice will gain insights into a working model for an abundant future. We need films like this to provide patterns of organization, cooperation, and exertion for long-lasting community improvement of our places."

Jason Gerhardt, Co-Director, Permaculture Institute, Ecological Designer, Real Earth Design

"People here know what it is to struggle. Despite bullying from economic powers and pressure from the government, despite floods and drought, they resist. As they fish and plow, they generate new possibilities of small-scale, sustainable growth. They reveal a hint of sunlight as danger can seem to loom everywhere. The film offers a hopeful perspective for students and community members who want to move beyond crisis to imagine, and create, a better future."

Dr. Ellen Moodie, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Author, El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy

" Keepers of the Future shows how a rural community in El Salvador 'develops' livelihood resilience by taking cues from its natural environment rather than state/corporate interest in capitalizing the landscape for plantation and tourist dollars. At a time when humans face catastrophic ecosystem and climate emergencies, this film's directness in chronicling people's self-organizing capacities offers a compelling didacticism. Public screenings might well focus on how social mobilization changes power relations."

Dr. Philip McMichael, Professor of Sociology, Faculty Fellow, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University

" Keepers of the Future tells the story of how the Coordinadora del Bajo Lempa, a social movement on the coast of El Salvador, built power and created a good life for their community through deep local democracy. They were able to resist privatization of their lands and the return of exploitative sugar and cotton industries to their region. But even more significantly, they learned to self-organize to protect their people from the frequent flooding and droughts caused by climate change. An inspiring and hopeful film about the power of vision and cooperation."

Dr. Molly D. Anderson, Professor and Director of Food Studies, Middlebury College

"This film brings together two crucial topics that are rarely discussed in conjunction: community organization and the climate crisis...In Keepers of the Future we see firsthand how organizing can overcome vulnerability. This film would be a great addition to syllabi or community agendas related to climate vulnerability and/or community organization and development."

Dr. Michael L. Dougherty, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University

" Keepers of the Future can be used in the classroom to bring to life with voices and images several themes: El Salvador's geography; events leading up to the nation's civil war; and El Salvador's political parties and system. A final discussion could examine in local and global context foreign companies' efforts to take natural resources from El Salvador's people. This discussion would focus on how communities that organized themselves during the war have used the strategies they learned to act together for what is best for them, their families and their homes."

Elizabeth Kennedy, Ph.D. candidate of Geography, San Diego State Univ/Univ of California - Santa Barbara

"Instructive for classrooms and grassroots organizations alike, Keepers of the Future offers a real example of how communities can work together to create resilience in the face of contemporary environmental, political and socioeconomic threats."

Dr. Tomas Matza, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh

" Keepers of the Future is not just about a community's struggle against the effects of climate change, but in discovering their own agency. It has a powerful message for all, resonating in particular to youth. I would definitely recommend this film to high school and college students, nonprofits and community organizations. We share vulnerabilities with the people of Bajo Lempa and are inspired by their courage to organize themselves to mitigate against the dangers they face, and to share what they have learned with other communities."

Dr. Richard Navarro, Professor of Education, California State Polytechnic University, former Chief of Party, USAID Project for Productivity through Higher Education in El Salvador

"A spellbinding case study of how ordinary people have said no to elite-driven paths for their future, and have instead built their own community-led, diversified agriculture. Full of insights into how organized communities can foster 'deep local democracy' in place of the environmental, social, and economic 'vulnerability' more typically imposed on them. This film will bring hope to your students, your environmental group, your social justice event, and your wider community. Keepers of the Future will haunt - but in ways that illuminate vibrant and viable alternatives."

Dr. Robin Broad, Professor of Environment and Development, American University

24 minutes
SDH Captioned>>

Directed by Avi Lewis
Produced by Klein Lewis Productions
Director of Photography: Mark O Fearghal
Location Sound: Daniel Hewitt
Original Music: Adam White, David Wall
Editors: Eamonn O'Connor, Mary Lampson
Executive Producer: EcoViva

DVD includes both English subtitled and Spanish versions as well as scene selection.Jury Award, Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival

Reduced rates for activist and grassroots groups. Please inquire.

DVD Features

Links The film's website Awards and Festivals
Honorable Mention, Wild & Scenic Film Festival Subjects Anthropology Related Titles

Biodiversity
Capitalism
Central America/The Caribbean
Climate Change/Global Warming
Community
Developing World
Environment
Fisheries
Food And Nutrition
Geography
Global Issues
Globalization
Latin American Studies
Local Economies
Political Science
Social Justice
Sociology
Sustainability
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Development

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Mountainfilm in Telluride
Frozen River Film Festival
Crossroads Festival for Documentary Film and Discourse
Global Peace Film Festival

Daughters of the Forest
A group of girls in a remote forest in Paraguay are transformed at an experimental high school where they learn to protect the threatened forest and build a future for themselves.

The Golf War
Globalization comes to a Philippine seaside community, which has to defend its ancestral lands against golf course development.

Secrets of the Choco
The Choco rainforest in Colombia faces development. What is the best option?

Heart Of Sky, Heart Of Earth
Six young Maya present a wholly indigenous perspective, in which all life is sacred and connected, as they resist the destruction of their culture and environment.

Milking the Rhino
The promise of community-based conservation in Africa.

Game Over
Explores the changing face of conservation in Kenya.

Argentina: Turning Around
An intimate view of new models of work, politics and community development in Argentina.

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution
Two-part series examining Cuba's enormous experiment in sustainable development in the face of an economic crisis brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Weather The Storm
Fishing communities on France's western coast show the path to sustainability.

Another World is Possible
A rousing account of the 2002 World Social Forum that will inspire activists everywhere.

... more Reviews

"I know these communities, and what the camera has captured here is both real and inspiring. I enthusiastically recommend this film to community leaders, development and environment practitioners, and educators interested in community-led development, political organizing and local democracy, and environmental restoration. I plan on using the film in a course I teach on rural development."

Barry Shelley, Senior Lecturer of Global Studies, Boston University

"Learners can engage in critical discussions about the role of autonomous social structures and the need to create and sustain them with a vision of deep democracy that supports healthier social relationships within communities...Classrooms in multiple fields will benefit from the valuable experiences portrayed and from learning how alternatives to industrial globalized agriculture can lead to new possibilities for the future."

Carolina Prado, San Jose State University, Films for the Feminist Classroom

"This short film can be used in workshops, community centers, activist organizations, or schools to educate people about ways in which small rural communities can come together and defeat governmental and transnational corporate extractivist designs on their land. In the face of ongoing media attention to climate change and the frequent assassination of environmental activists, Keepers of the Future offers an optimistic perspective on the capacity of a community to organize, resist, and create a sustainable world."

Toms Crowder-Taraborrelli and Kristi M. Wilson, Latin American Perspectives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Keepers of the Future | Bullfrog Films: 1-800-543-3764: Environmental DVDs and Educational DVDs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Following El Salvador's civil war, a farmers' cooperative puts down roots, builds resilience and provides a model of how to mitigate climate change and resist unsustainable, extractive development. From Bullfrog Films, the leading source of DVDs & videos about the environment, ecology, sustainable development, globalization, indigenous peoples, cultural diversity, and performing arts, music and dance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Imagine if your home country was swallowed by the sea? The impacts of climate change threaten the small island nation of Kiribati with total obliteration, and the inhabitants must prepare for a future in climate exile. 'Anote's Ark' follows both the relentless struggle of President Anote Tong to raise international awareness and to ensure the survival and cultural heritage of his countrymen, as well as the young mother Sermary, who literally fights against the rising water level while trying to reconcile herself to the idea of a new life in New Zealand. With ethnographic sensibility, Rytz has created a relevant and unsentimental story about the harsh consequences of the rising sea level for ordinary people.

How do we mitigate the consequences of the climate changes that we will have to live with and adapt to? This will be discussed by PhD Lily Lindegaard, who has researched climate adaptation and climate mobility in Vietnam, and former Emergency Managing Director of the UN in the Pacific, Sune Gudnitz. The debate is in English.

Tickets: DKK 95/65.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Imagine if your home country was swallowed by the sea? The impacts of climate change threaten the small island nation of Kiribati with total obliteration, and the inhabitants must prepare for a future in climate exile.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kaapora The Call of the Forest was filmed in the months of June and July 2020 at APA Kaapora, an Environmental Protection Area created by the Pataxó Hãhãhãe indigenous community, in the Caramuru Paraguaçu Indigenous Land, in the municipality of Pau Brasil, state of Bahia - Brazil.

The script for the film was written in 2018/19 and was adapted for filming due to the difficulties caused by the Covid epidemic. The filming took place in June and July 2020 so that the work could integrate the art exposition Véxoa - we know, from the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, and it was done by invitation that I received in January 2020 from the curator of the art exposition, the researcher Naine Terena and Pinacoteca for participation in Véxoa.
Release:
The film will be released at the Véxoa - we know, indigenous art exposition at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, on August 29, 2020 and internationally in 18th Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Sinopsis:
Kaapora The Call of the Forest is an experimental narrative project about the connection of the Indigenous People with the Earth and their Spirituality, from Olinda's point of view, developing an environmental recovery project on her people's land. Using the indigenous cosmovision as her lens, Kaapora and other spiritual characters lead the central narrative and argumentative plot of the movie.

.
Extra info
The film incorporates art by indigenous and non-indigenous artists who are supporters of the indigenous cause or sympathizers with the cultures and peoples of the Americas. Among these works is Mulher Pajé 2 by artist Jaider Esbell, and for its advertising the digital painting made by Letícia Abelha originally for the film. From musical works "Kaapora O Chamado das Matas" brings original music on its musical score, Cabocla Jurema, a song by Yawar adapted by Daniel Penha for the film, as well as songs by the band Arandú Arakuaa and Gilberto Gil. The literary-musical works with assignment of use rights and their respective phonograms were kindly provided by Arandú Arakuaa and by Gege Edições Musicais / Warner Music Brasil LTDA, a Warner Music Group company.

Jaider Esbell is an artist, writer and indigenous cultural producer of the Makuxi ethnic group. Born in Normandy, state of Roraima, and lived, until the age of 18, where today is the Raposa Indigenous Land - Serra do Sol (TI Raposa - Serra do Sol) - Brazil. Before being an artist, a skill discovered in childhood, Esbell went through several paths, he believed, would lead to the full condition of manifesting his skills.

Letícia Abelha is an artist from Minas Gerais - Brazil, residing in Belo Horizonte. His work has as main reference the Brazilian nature, culture and spirituality. It moves between traditional painting and drawing formats, in addition to digital and experimental art. A trained journalist and Yoga teacher, she uses the image as an account of what she thinks is most important to transmit on her journey.

Arandu Arakuaa (knowledge of the cycles of the heavens or wisdom of the cosmos, in Tupi-Guarani), started in April 2008 by Zândhio Huku. The band currently consists of Zândhio Huku (Guitar / Vocals / Viola Caipira / Indigenous Instruments), Andressa Barbosa (Bass / Vocals), Guilherme Cezario (Guitar / Vocals), João Mancha (Drums / Percussion). The band's musicality mixes heavy metal with indigenous and regional Brazilian music, with lyrics in the Tupi, Xerente and Xavante indigenous languages, inspired by the cosmologies, wisdom and struggles of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. In this way, seeking to contribute to the divulgation and enhancement of its cultural manifestations, underestimated over the centuries. The use of the viola caipira further enhances the Brazilianness in the sonority of Arandu Arakuaa. Zândhio uses a Viola Guitar, an instrument idealized by the musician himself. In August 2011, the band played their first show and, since then, has released their work with a 100% authorial repertoire. She was cited as an example of resistance in ecology, in a doctoral thesis in education at UNICAMP, participated in a scene for a series about the legendary Zé do Caixão, played by actor Matheus Nachtergaele and transmitted by the TV Space channel, in addition to media articles of great circulation as BBC Brasil, Uol, G1, Terra, O Globo, Correio do Povo, among others.

Gilberto Gil is the one of the greatest brazilian composer, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, music producer, known for his contribution to Brazilian music and for winning the American Grammy Awards, Latin Grammy Awards. In 1999, he was named "Artist for Peace", by UNESCO. In more than fifty albums released, he incorporates the eclectic range of his influences, including rock, typically Brazilian genres, African music, funk, disco and reggae music. (Wikipedia) Gil is a well-known supporter of the indigenous cause. having recorded the song "Demarcação Já" among other artists, among other support actions.

Daniel Penha is a singer, composer and multi instrumentalist from the interior of state of Bahia - Brazil. Born in Jacobina, he grew up between Quixabeira and Capim Grosso, and for this reason his art had very mixed musical influences, from elements of rural and urban music ranging from rural samba, batuque, chula, coco, baião, reggae, jazz, rock and heavy metal, not considering a fixed pattern, but maintaining a striking identity. In his works, he brings the culture of Northeastern hippie music, the Samba traditions of his region, fused to the sound of contemporary world music. His first solo album, entitled Verbo Utopia, released in November 2018, brings songs of his own, a production from the interior of Bahia

.

 Copyright Registered in the National Cinema Agency of Brazil Producer: Olinda Muniz Silva Wanderley
Director: Olinda Muniz Silva Wanderley
Ownership stakes: Olinda Muniz Silva Wanderley; 100%
Production and Direction Yawar Muniz Wanderley. 2020. Documentary / Fiction. Brazil. 00:19:57. Indigenous Peoples / Tupinambá / Pataxó Hãhãhãe / Spirituality / Earth Connection / Environmental Recovery / Kaapora Project / Life History / World View - Cognitive Perspective.
Production support

Support

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kaapora The Call of the Forest was filmed in the months of June and July 2020 at APA Kaapora, an Environmental Protection Area created by the Pataxó Hãhãhãe indigenous community, in the Caramuru Paraguaçu Indigenous Land, in the municipality of Pau Brasil, state of Bahia - Brazil.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Amazon Deforestation & Slavery   Toxic   VICE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Un documental de Terco Producciones y Oxfam Honduras en asociación con Tercer Piso.
Honduras, 2016 / Producción y Dirección: Katia Lara


SINOPSIS 
El asesinato de Berta Cáceres estremeció al mundo el 2 de marzo de 2016. Su lucha por la defensa de los territorios lencas la llevó a liderar el Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras COPINH. El activista mexicano Gustavo Castro, testigo del crimen, sobrevivió al horror de esa noche, pero quedó atrapado en Honduras. La lucha contra la instalación de una represa en el río Gualcarque, sagrado para el pueblo lenca, es el preámbulo de un relato en el que seguimos a Miriam Miranda, dirigente garífuna, amiga y compañera de Berta. Dos mujeres hermanadas en la lucha por la descolonización, en un país que está siendo vendido al capital trasnacional, donde se arrebata la vida de muchas formas.

SYNOPSIS
On March 2nd, 2016 news of Berta Caceres’ murder shook the world. The woman whose fight defending Lenca territories brought her to lead COPINH, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. Gustavo Castro, Mexican environmental activist, witnessed the crime, and survived the horror of that night but was then trapped in Honduras. The defense against the construction of a dam at the Gualcarque River, sacred to the Lenca indigenous communities, is the preface to a story in which we follow Miriam Miranda, leader of the Garífuna Afro-descendant people, as well as a friend and comrade of Berta. Both women unified in a struggle for decolonization in a country that is being sold to transnational capital and where death is delivered in so many different ways.

Guión y Dirección: Katia Lara
Empresa productora: Terco Producciones
Producción: Katia Lara
Investigación y Asistencia Dirección: Milton Benítez
Producción Ejecutiva: Katia Lara, Rodolfo Arévalo
Dirección de Producción: Esther Anino

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai | Trailer | PBS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
'Levitas's Utopia as Method is a crucial and necessary book. In the face of global ecological and economic crises, she offers utopianism as a robust and realistic method that encompasses both a critique of the existing world and alternatives for a better one that can be mobilized in the process of transforming, indeed redeeming, the dark times in which we live.' - Tom Moylan, Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of the Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland

'Author of the path-breaking The Concept of Utopia Ruth Levitas has produced a new powerful reflection on the protean nature of the utopian. It is a very fine work, theoretically innovative, truly interdisciplinary, and combining scholarly integrity with a distinctive political voice. The meditations of a lifetime.' - Vincent Geoghegan, Professor of Political Theory, Queen's University Belfast, UK

'Ruth Levitas' Utopia as Method is a profound and deeply original exploration of the connection between utopian thinking and social theory, and an urgent call for sociologists to place the imaginary reconstruction of society at the centre of their work. It is a wonderful, inspiring book.' - Erik Olin Wright, Vilas Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, USA

'This book is an indispensable support for deep change in trivial times, a testimonial to the transformative power of imagination, and a celebration of life as a journey that can find an echo across all cultures in our changing world.' - Jenneth Parker, Research Director, Schumacher Institute, UK

'In Utopia as Method, Levitas offers an urgent and convincing application of utopian theories to IROS (the Imaginary Reconstitution of Society). She builds on her magisterial earlier work The Concept of Utopia to persuade readers that the current era (late capitalism in its death throes) has made utopian thinking mandatory not self-indulgent or irrelevant. Levitas is to be congratulated for the depth of her argument, the clarity of its expression, and the honesty that lies at its heart.' - Toby Widdicombe, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Utopia as Method - The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society | R. Levitas | Palgrave Macmillan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Utopia should be understood as a method rather than a goal. This book rehabilitates utopia as a repressed dimension of the sociological and in the process produces the Imaginary Reconstitution of Society, a provisional, reflexive and dialogic method for exploring alternative possible futures....

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"My thesis is that at many levels of human interaction there is the opportunity to conflate discomfort with threat, to mistake internal anxiety for exterior danger, and in turn to escalate rather than resolve."

"If a person cannot solve a conflict with a friend, how can they possibly contribute to larger efforts for peace? If we refuse to speak to a friend because we project our anxieties onto an email they wrote, how are we going to welcome refugees, immigrants, and the homeless into our communities? The values required for social repair are the same values required for personal repair."

More quotes...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"My thesis is that at many levels of human interaction there is the opportunity to conflate discomfort with threat, to mistake internal anxiety for exterior danger, and in turn to escalate rather than resolve." "If a person cannot solve a conflict with a friend, how can they possibly contribute to larger efforts for peace?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy PhD is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and the environment, she interweaves her scholarship with six decades of activism. Now in her nineties, she lives in California.

Resilience specialist Dr. Chris Johnstone has a background in medicine, mental health promotion, and the psychology of change. He is known internationally for his online resilience training work, which has attracted participants from more than sixty countries. Heading towards sixty, he lives in Scotland.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy PhD is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and the environment, she interweaves her scholarship with six decades of activism. Now in her nineties, she lives in California.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Dissonance of Democracy: Listening, Conflict, and Citizenship

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our Theory of Change

Human Transformation Makes Social Transformation Possible

We are focused on the human transformation that makes social transformation possible. This is work of inner engagement and engagement in the world. Deepened inner life creates space for the moral wrestling that can transform interpersonal relationships. For this reason, our work engages leaders, innovators and changemakers who bring intelligence and teaching to bear on every aspect of human existence — the insights of civic leaders, teachers and neuroscientists in conversation with the wisdom and pastoral intelligence of a community’s religious and spiritual leaders.

We take a conflict transformation and peacebuilding approach to the scale of change we believe our world needs and desires. There is an underlying violence that has become a part of our lives. This violence has disrupted nascent relationships, altered our sense of self, and disoriented our relationships with each other and with the world around us. The social healing that is required in the United States, in this sense, is not entirely different from what is needed in war-torn regions of the world.

We recognize that On Being’s content is engaged globally, and our community includes people from around the world who seek accompaniment in their work for social healing. While we honor our unique relationship to the United States, we recognize the global need for social healing and our capacity to support global efforts to this end.

Our Grounding Virtues

What we practice, we become. These six “grounding virtues” guide everything we do through The On Being Project. Virtues are not the stuff of saints and heroes. They are spiritual technologies and tools for the art of living. Read more.

The Civil Conversations Project — speaking together differently in order to live together differently. An ongoing body of work within the On Being radio show and podcast.

Featured Starting Point

The Better Conversations Guide

This guide is intended to help ground and animate a gathering of friends or strangers in a conversation that might take place over weeks or months. It provides a flexible roadmap you can adapt for your group and intentions. We created it as producers, but more as citizens, out of what we’ve learned in more than 15 years of conversation on On Being.

Get the Guide

“When it comes to cultural change we excessively fixate on the critical mass and underestimate the catalytic quality of the improbable few. The ‘critical yeast’ — these small, unlikely, combinations of persistent people and partnerships committed to a new quality of relationship — dwell before and behind every instance of social change that truly shifts what is possible and transformative across generations.”

John Paul Lederach

Results

View

List View

Standard View

Grid View

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Human transformation makes social transformation possible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The term dialogue comes from the ancient Greek dialogos and literally means dia- "through" logos - "word". The word allows us to connect with and understand one another, to step into a relationship and interact. The origin of dialogue is connected to the search for meaning and insight. This search may initially appear quite removed from day-to-day working life. But conversations are the foundation of all collective work, and the quality of our conversations is a decisive factor in achieving sustainable success, all the way from decision making to problem solving and innovation to conflict- and crisis management.

David Bohm, an American physicist and philosopher, intensively studied the philosophical foundations of dialogue. His thoughts were developed and expanded in the Dialogue Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an specific method to be implemented in an organizational context.

Dialogue according to David Bohm

Bohm's concept of dialogue developed in his intensive exchange with the Indian thinker Jiddu Krischnamurti. Krischnamurti and Bohm assume that social and personal problems stem from our conditioned and unexamined thought processes and our preconceived assumptions. Bohm is concerned with creating a framework though dialogue in which precisely these assumptions and processes can be observed and discussed - in order to unmask them as assumptions that we can let go of or replace with other assumptions. This frees up space for new perspectives and thought processes that can lead to sustainable changes in our behavior.

In order for dialogical potential to develop optimally, a framework with certain ground rules is required. It is essential that no decisions are made or specific goals set during the dialogue itself. There is no discussion or plan of action, not even an agenda, because they already include defining assumptions: assumptions about what to talk about, what result is desirable, which argument is more convincing or which course of action is more useful. These assumptions limit the dialogue with prescribed subjects and styles of thought.

However, the goal of the dialogue - insofar as there can be a goal in a dialogue - is to examine a subject in all openness in order to reach a deeper understanding of the thought processes that guide our behavior. This leads to new insights and new possibilities for success.

The Dialogic Mindset

The essential condition for a dialogue in Bohm's sense is an attitude of openness and mindful perception without judgment. The attention in a dialogue must be on the observation and communication of what is happening in the group and within oneself when things are expressed and views made known. This mindset allows us to recognize our own assumptions without judgment and to question rather than defend them. This clears the way for what is new and different, individually and in groups.

Exploring Assumptions: What is Necessary?

Bohm expands such dialogical explorations using the example of necessity. When we judge something as necessary, there is no more room for negotiation. So as soon as different opinions about what is absolutely necessary are made known, a polarization occurs that is difficult to overcome. This is a situation often found in organizations, for example when it's time to distribute limited money and resources. These conflicts can reach dramatic dimensions when human lives are sacrificed for reasons that are assumed to be necessary, as happens in situations of war. Here the usual path of discussion fails and a conflict develops.

In dialogue, there is the possibility of rising above this conflict by questioning the assumptions: is this or that issue really absolutely necessary? What does absolutely necessary mean? Are there perhaps other necessities too? In this way, we can start to see that we limit ourselves with ideas about what is absolutely necessary and thereby stay mired in conflict. This questioning can lead to the freedom to consider other hierarchies of what is necessary. Real change and transformation become possible.

The MIT Dialogue Project: Practical Application in Organizations

William Isaacs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took up Bohm's approach and initiated the MIT Dialogue Project for practical use in organizations in 1990. Isaacs and his team developed a process in which the necessary trust in the power of dialogue could be developed over the course of several group conversations. The most important additional element turned out to be the role of the facilitator. Facilitation ensures that the dialogical framework ("container") is held together in time and place and creates safety for the group - an essential condition for openness among individuals.

The dialogue method was tested and developed further in large companies, in conflict management and even in serious crises. Deep rifts were overcome and new paths forged together. Isaacs reports, among other things, about a steel mill steeped in tradition, in which hardened fronts between management and production had been obstructing progress for years. For the first time in generations, the dialogues allowed for collective plans of action to develop in order to solve constantly recurring problems, so that investors were willing to make new investments in the steel mill.

Everybody Wins

The essential result of the initiative for the dialogue project was the lasting change within the conversational culture in the organizations in question. The practice of dialogue leads to a more refined perception that cannot be reversed. One can recognize blockages in thinking and address them more quickly. Once the art of collective thinking has gained traction, it radiates into the whole environment sustainably. More trust develops within a group and information can flow more freely. This leads, in a totally natural way, to more constructive working relationships and better decisions-a win for everyone.

Learn more about the four dialogic skills and about implementing a culture of dialogue in organizations.

Literature:

David Bohm. On Dialogue. New York, 2014.
William Isaacs. Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in Business and in Life. New York, 1999.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Art of Dialogue according to David Bohm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The term dialogue comes from the ancient Greek dialogos and literally means dia- "through" logos - "word". The word allows us to connect with and understand one another, to step into a relationship and interact. The origin of dialogue is connected to the search for meaning and insight.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings. Acknowledgements to the 10 th Anniversary Third Edition. About the Author. Introduction to the 10 th Anniversary Third Edition. Part I. Movements Toward Anti-Oppressive Teacher Education. Chapter 1. Three Teacher Images in U.S. Teacher Education Programs. Chapter 2. Preparing Teachers for Crisis: A Sample Lesson. Chapter 3. Preparing Teachers for Uncertainty: A Sample Lesson. Chapter 4. Preparing Teachers for Healing: A Conversation with Buddhism. Chapter 5. Preparing Teachers for Activism: A Reflection on Things Queer. Part II. Preparing Anti-Oppressive Teachers in Six Disciplines. Chapter 6. Examples from Social Studies. Chapter 7. Examples from English Literature. Chapter 8. Examples from Music. Chapter 9. Examples from "Foreign" Languages. Chapter 10. Examples from the Natural Sciences. Chapter 11. Examples from Mathematics. Conclusion: With Hope. Afterword, by William F. Pinar. Index.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings. Acknowledgements to the 10 th Anniversary Third Edition. About the Author. Introduction to the 10 th Anniversary Third Edition. Part I. Movements Toward Anti-Oppressive Teacher Education. Chapter 1. Three Teacher Images in U.S. Teacher Education Programs. Chapter 2. Preparing Teachers for Crisis: A Sample Lesson. Chapter 3.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Download Product Flyer

Download Product Flyer

Download Product Flyer is to download PDF in new tab. This is a dummy description. Download Product Flyer is to download PDF in new tab. This is a dummy description. Download Product Flyer is to download PDF in new tab. This is a dummy description. Download Product Flyer is to download PDF in new tab. This is a dummy description.

Description

Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in the search for knowledge and an inherent component of scientific research. We have developed many ways of coping with uncertainty. We make promises, manage risks and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict ahead. But the future is inherently uncertain - and the mist that shrouds our path an inherent part of our journey. The burning question is whether our societies can face up to uncertainty, learn to embrace it and whether we can open up to a constantly evolving future.

In this new book, Helga Nowotny shows how research can thrive at the cusp of uncertainty. Science, she argues, can eventually transform uncertainty into certainty, but into certainty which remains always provisional.

Uncertainty is never completely static. It is constantly evolving. It encompasses geological time scales and, at the level of human experience, split-second changes as cells divide. Life and death decisions are taken in the blink of the eye, while human interactions with the natural environment may reveal their impact over millennia.

Uncertainty is cunning. It appears at unexpected moments, it shuns the straight line, takes the oblique route and sometimes the unexpected short-cut. As we acknowledge the cunning of uncertainty, its threats retreat. We accept that any scientific inquiry must produce results that are provisional and uncertain. This message is vital for politicians and policy-makers: do not be tempted by small, short-term, controllable gains to the exclusion of uncertain, high-gain opportunities.

Wide-ranging in its use of examples and enriched by the author's experience as President of the European Research Council, one of the world's leading funding organisations for fundamental research. The Cunning of Uncertainty is a must-read for students and scholars of all disciplines, politicians, policy-makers and anyone concerned with the fundamental role of knowledge and science in our societies today.

About the Author

Helga Nowotny is former President of the European Research Council and Professor Emerita of Social Studies of Science at ETH Zurich

Table of contents

Preface

Chapter 1 - Craving for Uncertainty

Chapter 2 - The Odds for Tomorrow

Chapter 3 - The Cunning of Promises

Chapter 4 - Coping with Uncertainty

Chapter 5 - Embracing Uncertainty

Acknowledgements

References

Index

Reviews

"Informed, eloquent and compelling."
-The Times Higher Education

"This is the most insightful, thorough reflection I have ever read on the most fundamental issue of our world: how to accept uncertainty and how to deal with it. This book has extraordinary implications for the practice and epistemology of science. A seminal work that will influence science policy in significant ways."
- Manuel Castells, University of Southern California

"With rapid advances in technology intersecting with human behaviour in unpredictable ways, how we approach issues surrounding uncertainty will inevitably impact every aspect of life. In this thought-provoking book, Professor Helga Nowotny brings unique perspectives on uncertainty from her extensive background as a scholar, policy maker and research administrator."
- Subra Suresh, President, Carnegie Mellon University

"This brilliant new book confirms Helga Nowotny as the voice of social science in an initially unsympathetic milieu, and its intellectual champion in her insistence that without understandings of and through society, understandings of and through science cannot flourish."
- Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge

"From tea leaves to necromancy, from betting to scientific research, Helga Nowotny's exploration of uncertainty is deep and wide, playful and practical in turn. But at the heart of the matter lies a serious imperative, dear to my heart, which is the business of finding out about the world and how it works."
-Tim Hunt, ERC Scientific Council

"In this splendid book, Helga Nowotny tackles the ever-elusive human desire to tame the future by considering how technology and innovation feed imagination and aspirations. Millennial dreams, science fiction, sustainability studies, economics, algorithms and genetics are the stuff that drives her analysis across an amazing array of fields and situations. Despite unrelenting randomness, she advocates that we embrace uncertainty, for this is essential for developing capabilities and social resilience."
- Michèle Lamont, Harvard University

"Nowotny's slim book is a big well of wisdom. You may find your sense of wonder refreshed if you locked in some time to drink deep from it."
-The Strait Times, Singapore

"Highly recommended to anybody with an interest in how humans fear, hope, and act upon the future."
-Mary Ann Liebert Publications

"Remarkable"
-The American Historian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in the search for knowledge and an inherent component of scientific research. We have developed many ways of coping with uncertainty. We make promises, manage risks and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict ahead.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although much recent social science and humanities work has been a revolt against simplification, this volume explores the contrast between simplicity and compl