Yesterday afternoon, representatives from the Long Crisis Network, Local Trust, and The Alternative UK came together to explore the implications of the Long Crisis Scenarios for the future of communities.
The Long Crisis Scenarios are a Call to Citizen Thinking
The Long Crisis Scenarios are a tremendous gift to us all. Considered and calm, they offer a way to make sense of events that can otherwise seem so great in magnitude that, for myself at least, there is a real risk of feeling completely overwhelmed. But more than that, in the form of the Winning Ugly scenario, in particular, they offer both a call to action and a reassurance that action can and will be meaningful.
2030: Which Path Will We Take?
Scenarios for our post-COVID future kept coming up in discussions over at the Red Button Club. So we teleported ourselves into the year 2030 and took a seat at the desk of a recently retired foreign secretary, getting ready to pour his/her heart into an honest end of the year op-ed.
Must read
Scenarios Week on Global Dashboard
This article is part of our Scenarios Week series, exploring and expanding on the Long Crisis Scenarios. You can find the other articles in the series on our Scenarios Week page. Just over a week ago, we published our latest work as the Long Crisis Network: the...
Our COVID Future: The Long Crisis Scenarios
Created in partnership with: COVID-19 marks a turning point in the 21st century. Levels of uncertainty are off the chart, making predictions impossible. But if we can create plausible stories about different futures, we create a...
Shooting the Rapids: COVID-19 and the Long Crisis of Globalisation
Back in 2010, a report entitled Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization, which we co-wrote with Bruce Jones, was published by the Brookings Institution. Today, we release a new report exploring the link between the Long Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the...
Justice Leadership in a Pandemic: Read the Call to Action in Four Languages
Last month, we released a call to action by members of the Justice Leadership Group – a call for justice leaders to step up, work collaboratively, and put people-centred justice at the heart of their response to the COVID-19 crisis. Now, we’re pleased to announce that...
Winning Ugly: Five Lessons From Managing a School Shutdown
On 28 February, Lebanon confirmed its fourth case of COVID-19, closing all schools with immediate effect on the same day. Fadi Yarak, the Director General of Education in the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), shares some lessons from over a decade of leading a school system through difficult times.
Four Scenarios and a Future for Communities
To think through the changes we need to make, it makes sense first to try to understand the new landscape, even as it is still unfolding. To help answer that question, we asked Alex Evans and David Steven, founders of the Long Crisis Network, to develop some scenarios, each describing a different future that could emerge from the events happening around us now.
Scenarios Week on Global Dashboard
Today, we’re kicking off Scenarios Week, a week of articles from leading thinkers who have formed their own responses to the Long Crisis Scenarios, perspectives on what our world might soon look like, or insights on how we can prepare for an uncertain future.
Putting the Most Marginalised at the Centre: Lessons for the COVID-19 Response from the HIV Epidemic
You can’t fight epidemics or improve public health by just telling people what to do and disregarding all the factors that affect our day-to-day decisions or force us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise do. You also can’t improve the health of a nation if you ignore people who are already sidelined.
Our COVID Future: The Long Crisis Scenarios
COVID-19 marks a turning point in the 21st century. Levels of uncertainty are off the chart, making predictions impossible. But if we can create plausible stories about different futures, we create a foundation for decision makers, campaigners, and communities to influence the process of change.
Protecting our Critical Global Infrastructure
In the final section of our Shooting the Rapids report, we present a plan for collective action with four elements. In this post, we’re focusing on one in particular: protecting critical global infrastructure.
Shooting the Rapids: COVID-19 and the Long Crisis of Globalisation
Shooting the Rapids: COVID-19 and the Long Crisis of Globalisation is a major new report that explores what we do and don’t know about each of the three layers of the COVID-19 crisis, sets out a playbook for collective action, and presents a plan for international co-operation.
Justice Leadership in a Pandemic: Read the Call to Action in Four Languages
Last month, we released a call to action by members of the Justice Leadership Group – a call for justice leaders to step up, work collaboratively, and put people-centred justice at the heart of their response to the COVID-19 crisis. Now, we’re pleased to announce that the original English article is also available to read in Arabic, French, and Spanish.
The Debts We Now Owe Each Other – and How to Pay Them Back
In Our Other National Debt, we have tried to make practical proposals for how to start turning gratitude or warm sentiment into real-world action that will make a meaningful difference. Nothing about this is easy, but it’s nonetheless profoundly important. How can we encourage good things to flourish even in rough and damaged soil?
Long-Term Solutions to Food Crises: Building Credit Institutions That Can Finance Agriculture Value Chains
The World Food Programme has predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will double the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger. “We could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions,” according to its executive director, if we don’t act to avert them.
The True Cost of COVID-19 School Closures
According to our model, just four months of school and university closures across the United States could result in a $2.5 trillion total loss in future earnings. At a global level, these new data suggest that the current generation of students could lose up to $10 trillion as a result of COVID-19 closures over the course of their careers.
This Too Shall Pass: Mourning Collective Loss in the Age of COVID-19
The nature of this crisis goes right to the core of how we live – and die – as social beings, and forces us to look our unease with death squarely in the face. We are experiencing widespread loss, and this inevitably leads to the need to grieve. As such, we recognise that grieving well and collectively will be essential.