‘Systemic thinking’, ‘regenerative culture’, and new forms of prefigurative politics: challenges for the global left

ABSTRACT

One of the aspects of the current crisis of the Left is an ‘epistemological blindness’ that prevents it from identifying opportunities for its own renewal. That includes the dismissal of the contribution of prefigurative forms of collective action which do not fit its institutionalized orthodoxies. Their most significant expression is a range of grassroots initiatives based on ‘systemic thinking’ and aimed at promoting a ‘regenerative culture’. It includes non-capitalist economic initiatives, such as those of the transition movement, social and solidarity economy and the Global Ecovillage Network, as well as of the temporary communities created by Occupy Wall Street movement and the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. They regard social polarization, patriarchy, and the crisis of democracy as interconnected dimensions of a civilizational dysfunction that asks for whole-systems solutions. Such approach, if adopted by the Left, may contribute to its renewal and political strengthening.

KEYWORDS:

• Systemic thinking
• regenerative culture
• prefiguring
• global left

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude for the comments made on previous drafts of this article by Maria José Vitorino, Ethan Earle and Adelino Fortunato.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Ana Margarida Esteves http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0417-6770

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/justin-trudeau-and-the-politics-of-spectacle, retrieved on February 21, 2019.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Bolsa SFRH/BPD/94495/2013) which enabled my affiliation to the Centro de Estudos Internacionais ISCTE-IUL (UID/CPO/03122/2013) and allowed me to conduct the research required for this paper.

Notes on contributors

Ana Margarida Esteves

Ana Margarida Esteves is associated with Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Estudos Internacionais, Lisboa, Portugal.