About  

While the neo-liberal capitalist system has undeniably fostered significant material welfare and lifted millions from poverty, it has also given rise to pressing challenges of our age: deepening ecological crises, growing inequalities, pervasive corporate power, deficits in the non-material dimensions of wellbeing, and persisting disadvantages related to characteristics such as race, gender, disability and class to name a few. These challenges are exacerbated by a backdrop of strains presented by demographic change and the development of socially disruptive technologies.  

Not surprisingly, there are demands for a new vision of the future. Specifically, a vision for a better socio-economic system. 

Many proposals have been advanced that claim to improve our socio-economic system. Prominent proposals include accounts of degrowth, the well-being economy, the basic income society, workplace democracy, property-owning-democracy, democratic socialism, stakeholder capitalism and community wealth building.  

So far, there has not been a comprehensive normative analysis that allows us to rigorously compare these proposals, or to specify the ethical foundations on which they rest. Without such an analysis, it will be difficult for politicians, scholars and citizens to know which vision for the future is most promising.  

The Visions for the Future project will conduct this analysis, and explore the potential for hybrid solutions that blend the best elements of the various proposals in ways that could achieve a more equitable, sustainable, and inclusive future.