Seeking realistic pathways to the NSP: A literature review of key works in the Great Transition Initiative (GTI) paper series

Abstract

A literature review of some key works in the Great Transition Initiative (GTI) paper series based on Raskin’s Great Transition essay shows that Raskin replaces his dichotomy of two Great Transition variants by a trichotomy of three different types of regions in his essay “The Great Transition Today: A Report from the Future” from 2006. This trichotomy consists of three different types of future regions: Agoria (a more conventional and capitalist region), Ecodemia (based on the primacy of worker ownership and workplace democracy), and finally Arcadia (selfreliant economies, small enterprises, face-to-face democracy, and love of nature). Raskin assumes that nations will be replaced by hundreds of regions as subglobal demarcations based on a global constitution to be created in 2032 (“one world, many places”). In another essay from 2006, Raskin stresses the key role of citizen movements for the implementation of Great Transition. Other essays in this series analyze the strengths and weaknesses of existing economic systems, cover global politics and institutions, design principles and visions for a new globalism, or deal with dynamics of global change. In an essay from 2010, given the unfolding crisis, Raskin doubts that the global “elite” will still be capable of organized cooperation.