Publication
Planning for a World beyond COVID-19: Five Pillars for Post-Neoliberal Development
In this opinion article published in World Development, the authors present five research and policy priorities. While it is clear that ‘pluriversal’ designs need to guide the way forward (Kothari et al 2019), defining a set of key pillars can provide direction and purpose across this pluriversality. The article is based upon a manifesto that was published in April 2020, right after the first COVID-19 wave hit Europe. Over 170 scientist of different Dutch universities signed the manifesto.
- Author
- i.a. Marja Spierenburg and Vincent Walstra
- Date
- 17 December 2020
- Links
- Full Article Planning for a World beyond COVID-19: Five Pillars for Post-Neoliberal Development
Scientist Bram Büscher, Giuseppe Feola, Andrew Fischer, Robert Fletcher, Julien-François Gerber, Wendy Harcourt, Martijn Koster, Mindi Schneider, Joeri Scholtens, Marja Spierenburg, Vincent Walstra and Han Wiskerke wrote an article based upon the manifesto. The article is published in World Development.
Five priorities for a post-COVID-19 development paradigm
1. A move away from development focused on aggregate economic growth
2. An economic framework focused on redistribution and care
3. Transformation towards regenerative agriculture and convivial conservation
4. Reduction of consumption and travel
5. Debt cancellation
The authors recognize that these five priorities depend on local context, history and positionality. They are meant to provoke further debate, research and political action in search for a better world.
"As we acknowledge those hardest hit by this particular crisis, we can do justice to them ensuring that a future crisis will be much less severe, borne more evenly across social groups, cause much less anxiety or may not happen at all. This starts with planning around a vision based on key pillars that we can hold on to in turbulent times."