The purpose of the talks about “Utopia(s) reloaded: Science, activism and the techno-eco-social transformation” we are preparing for 26-28 October 2023 is to raise awareness of the scientific basis on which action can be effective in overcoming the current polycrisis. These talks are intended to explore the paradigm changes needed to transform our societies.

The pandemic has shown that our societies are still barely capable of learning. Although the focus was on the malaise of the system maintainers that run society like nurses, doctors, police officers, emergency personnel and supermarket cashiers, working conditions or wages have not improved. The health care systems are in crisis. The split of society into those poorer at the bottom and those better off at the top has progressed. The “American Dream” of generational advancement has disappeared. Kurt Bayer, who, among many positions he held in the financial sector, was also a director at the World Bank, reports an event taken place at the Volkstheater in Vienna featuring Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, political scientist Ulrich Brand and in-coming Director of Austria’s IIASA, climate expert Hans Joachim Schellnhuber.

Bayer, who will take part in our talks, concludes: The solution to the social question requires to question the power. This is another, if not the most essential, facet of the paradigm shifts for the transformations ante portas.

Read Bayer’s comments here: https://kurtbayer.wordpress.com/2023/10/01/brand-und-oder-sandel-oder-gar-schellnhuber/