An article on openDemocracy By Max Haiven.

“All crisis phenomena have a common denominator: they reveal a general deficit of imagination. The present is being endured to the same degree as the future seems inconceivable. What will happen tomorrow with social security, education, affluence or culture? Some people bury their head in the sand of the present moment, others compensate for the missing vision with fear and aggression. Angela Merkel’s ‘we’ll make it’ doesn’t help much. It mostly means: if you can’t prevent something from happening, then just pretend you’re steering it. There are good reasons to be wary of big plans. In the past, the ones which didn’t fail made things even worse. On the other hand uncontrolled developments usually strengthen the rule of the stronger.

So how can we re-imagine the future? The Canadian thinker and activist Max Haiven has written several books on this question, among others Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power: Capitalism, Creativity and the Commons (Zed books, 2014). Now, he opens his rich tool box to focus on the movement of people, data and goods – a traffic that will not continue without control. Borders and infrastructure are the central sites for this control of movement, and therefore also crucial sites for the production of futures. How is it possible to achieve democratic oversight of borders and infrastructure? Which imperatives are required to reimagine and rebuild these sites accordingly? He explores this in cooperation with TACIT FUTURES, the 2016 programme of the Berliner Gazette.”

This essay is available here.

Photo by jennie Zed