What’s next
“Systemic problems require systemic solutions.” That’s the premise The Next System Project is operating under. They are viewing some of our most pressing crises like political apathy, ecological destruction, and stumbling economies through a different lens in the hopes of new perspective.
Get outside the box
There are many principals around which to organize a society. Capitalism, pluralist commonwealths, and democratic eco-socialism are all examples of social systems. What would organizing ourselves in a way that doesn’t value things like profit-making, continual economic growth and consumption look like? What if democratic cooperative communities were at the center of a system? The Next System Project seeks to provide a safe space, a “greenhouse” for thinking about, discussing, and fleshing out new system concepts and ideas in the hopes of being able to envision a new future.
Big thinking
It functions as a research and development lab for political-economic alternatives. Operating as a part of the Democracy Collaborative, The Next Project System connects designs for a better future with networks that can make them real. It’s a place for fostering innovative thinking and new approaches to some of the biggest challenges we face. Beyond imagining our next system, there is work being done in many other areas like movement strategy and history, race and ethnicity, public planning, and community and place – just to name a few. By approaching issues systemically, they believe they can move our degraded political conversation beyond current limits and catalyze a substantive debate about the next system and how we might go about its construction. It’s big thinking about big goals, and we need it now more than ever.
To learn more about new system ideas like pluralist commonwealths, here’s a video explaining the basics.
Meredith, a former professional in the software industry, has come to the Mrs. Green’s World team through an unlikely journey that took her through the world of non-profit management and on to becoming a part of MGW. Helping people understand climate change and what we can do about it – is very near and dear to her heart. She lives in Tucson with her family and too many pets.