Urban Andes

Climate change in the Andes is affecting the relation between urban development and the landscape. Design-led explorations are reframing landscape logics and urbanisation patterns within the Cachi River Basin of Ayacucho, Peru. A co-production of students, researchers and designers, the book suggests alternative futures, crossing scales of landscape systems to new settlement typologies. Urban Andes marks the start of the new series LAP on innovative design research in architecture, urbanism, and landscape. It is the result of a two-year collaboration (2018–2020), initiated by the CCA in cooperation with KU Leuven and various partners, including local organisations and the VLIR-UOS.

Alternative Futures for the Digital Transformation: A Macro-Level Schumpeterian Perspective

This paper develops and deploys a theoretical framework for assessing the prospects of a cluster of technologies driving what is often called the digital transformation. There is considerable uncertainty regarding this transformation’s future trajectory, and to understand and bound that uncertainty, we build on Schumpeter’s macro-level theory of economy-wide, technological revolutions and on the work of several scholars who have extended that theory. In this perspective, such revolutions’ trajectories are shaped primarily by the interaction of changes within and between three spheres—technology, organization, and public policy. We enrich this account by identifying the critical problems and the collective choices among competing solutions to those problems that together shape the trajectory of each revolution. We argue that the digital transformation represents a new phase in the wider arc of the information and communication technology revolution—a phase promising much wider deployment—and that the trajectory of this deployment depends on collective choices to be made in the organization and public policy spheres. Combining in a 2 × 2 matrix the two main alternative solutions on offer in each of these two spheres, we identify four scenarios for the future trajectory of the digital transformation: digital authoritarianism, digital oligarchy, digital localism, and digital democracy. We discuss how these scenarios can help us trace and understand the future trajectory of the digital transformation.

Toyin Falola@65 Conference: African Knowledge and Alternative Futures

A defining moment for me at the Toyin Falola@65 Conference titled “African Knowledges and Alternative Futures” that ran from the 29th to the 31st of January 2018 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, was the declaration at a paper presentation session by a scholar from a Nigerian university that the culture of making promotion of Nigerian academics dependent on publication in journals outside Nigeria, particularly from the West, is ultimately counterproductive to the development of a robust academic culture in Nigeria. “Do US or British academics, for example, have to publish in Nigerian journals?” he asked. This loaded question is at the heart of the challenges and paradoxes provoked by the conference. Another definitive encounter for me was another presenter’s outlining of the concept of an African, as different from an Asian or a Western epistemology or way of arriving at relating to knowledge. Yet another was Emmanuel Ofuasia’s explanation of what he describes as the Yoruba origin Ifa knowledge system’s anticipating of deconstructivist hermeneutics centuries before the development of this post-modern scholarly phenomenon in the West. Complementing these occurrences is yet another represented by Dr. Joan Ugo Mbagwu expounding on indigenous methods of conflict resolution and countering terrorism in Africa. I shall use these encounters as pivots in exploring the significance of the conference in the body of this essay.

Toyin Falola@65 Conference: African Knowledges and Alternative Futures

The Toyin Falola @65 Conference brought together scholars from across the African continent and the world from 29 to 31 January 2018 under the theme, ‘African Knowledge and Alternative Futures.’ Our focus reflected on the long struggle for epistemic justice on the continent while centering and recognizing Falola’s important role in the project. This was a unique conference in terms of its structure, content, as well as the diversity of intellectuals that it attracted.

Apocalyptic Visions and Anthems of Hope: Climate Change Communication and Future Possibilities

Within the emerging field of evolutionary psychology a consensus is developing that the triggering of emotions is integral to the human response to threats. This understanding of human psychology underlies a vigorous debate within the contemporary activity of climate change communication regarding the efficacy of the emotions of fear vis-à-vis hope for mobilising human behavioural change. Noting the contours of this debate and the paucity of radical future vision casting within contemporary western political discourse, the article examines how images of terror function within the ‘Little Apocalypse’ passage in Matthew 24 and potential insights this offers to our contemporary situation. Building upon this biblical reflection, the article contends that the Christian practices of preaching and singing have significant power to shape communal imaginative visions of alternative futures. As such, these practices are critical gifts that the church can offer the environmental movement and broader society in this moment of time.

Autonomous Geographies in Aotearoa: Camp for Climate Action and the Politics of Climate Change

<p>In the last two decades a new form of social movement has spread internationally, characterized by political autonomy, direct action, radical change, and decentralized organization. In response to academic misunderstandings of these new movements, critical geographers have coined the term 'autonomous geographies' to allow effective documentation and communication of these struggles. This research uses autonomous geographies and related discourses to explore how autonomous political collective Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa contributes to the politics of climate change in New Zealand. As an active participant in Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa I have utilized a scholar activist epistemological framework throughout the research process, allowing successful navigation of these interconnected identities. Critical discussion of qualitative data gathered in semi-structured interviews with long-term participants indicates that Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa provides significant support to activists through community and affective solidarity. Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa uses direct action and direct democracy processes which contribute to everyday activist practices and express a non-hegemonic 'logic of affinity'. Data analysis indicates Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa contributes to the creation of alternative futures in the present. These alternative futures are necessary for healthy democracies. Physical climate camps are particularly significant in providing opportunities for creating these alternative visions. Climate Camp Aotearoa is a genuinely political collective that contributes to a repoliticization of climate change in New Zealand.</p>

Autonomous Geographies in Aotearoa: Camp for Climate Action and the Politics of Climate Change

<p>In the last two decades a new form of social movement has spread internationally, characterized by political autonomy, direct action, radical change, and decentralized organization. In response to academic misunderstandings of these new movements, critical geographers have coined the term 'autonomous geographies' to allow effective documentation and communication of these struggles. This research uses autonomous geographies and related discourses to explore how autonomous political collective Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa contributes to the politics of climate change in New Zealand. As an active participant in Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa I have utilized a scholar activist epistemological framework throughout the research process, allowing successful navigation of these interconnected identities. Critical discussion of qualitative data gathered in semi-structured interviews with long-term participants indicates that Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa provides significant support to activists through community and affective solidarity. Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa uses direct action and direct democracy processes which contribute to everyday activist practices and express a non-hegemonic 'logic of affinity'. Data analysis indicates Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa contributes to the creation of alternative futures in the present. These alternative futures are necessary for healthy democracies. Physical climate camps are particularly significant in providing opportunities for creating these alternative visions. Climate Camp Aotearoa is a genuinely political collective that contributes to a repoliticization of climate change in New Zealand.</p>