The Next System and the Academy: Systemic Crises, Movements, and Change in the 2020s

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Our lives feel precarious. Many of us are anxious about the future. And our ability to respond effectively to the social, economic, political, climate, ecological, and human crises of these times is undermined by a widespread sense of crisis fatigue. Into this moment enters a new government in Washington that has promised to “Build Back Better.” But should we build back better only from what the last president called the “American carnage” of recent years, or must we also find ways to overcome the mounting crises of recent decades?

A rising tide of community-based movements and initiatives offer the possibility that from this period of systemic decay may emerge a next system that is more democratic, sustainable, and just.

Join us for a meaningful discussion among leading policymakers, innovators, community organizers, and academics working to prepare our society for a transition to a system that provides the best outcomes for all.

Keynote

• Rep. Mark Pocan, co-chair of the U.S. House Labor Caucus and co-chair of the Congressional Cooperative Business Caucus

Major Panel

• Kali Akuno, co-founder of Cooperation Jackson and coauthor of “Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi”
• Gar Alperovitz, eminent historian, and political economist and cofounder of Next System Project
• Roberto Jesus Clack, Associate Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice
• Dr. Emily Kawano, co-director of Wellspring Cooperative, and cofounder of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Coalition

Academic Response Panel

• Dr. Amy Best, Professor, and Chair of Sociology, George Mason University
• Dr. Diane Fujino, Professor, and Chair of Asian American Studies, UC Santa Barbara

Moderated by

• Dr. Ben Manski, Assistant Professor of Sociology at George Mason University and director of the Democratizing NoVA project at Mason

A full biography of each speaker and the moderator is available on the event’s official webpage.

This is an Earth Week Event co-hosted by George Mason University’s Center for Social Science Research, Democratizing NOVA project, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

Co-sponsors include Mason’s Office of Sustainability; SIS Social Action and Integrative Learning (SAIL); Public Sociology Association; Graduate Student Sociological Association; Green Patriots; UndocuMason; and Movement Engaged Research Hub; as well as the UCSB Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy; UCSB Department of Asian American Studies; Center for Social Research at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Leadership for the Ecozoic; Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education; and also community-based supporters at the Democracy Collaborative; U.S. Solidarity Economy Network; Move to Amend; Liberty Tree Foundation; Cooperation Humboldt; Alliance for Democracy; Round Sky Solutions; and Warehouse Workers for Justice.

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