LA GRAN ENCRUCIJADA

8 | LA GRAN ENCRUCIJADA. Sobre la crisis ecosocial y el cambio de ciclo histórico
SUMMARY CONTENTS
On the text and its key considerations
1. A change of historical epoch.
There is every indication that we are facing a change of historical epoch in
which the ecological crisis and the threat of social collapse are real; time is
critical and the measures adopted so far are insufficient.
2. The change as a complex transition
We need to bring forth narratives and new social consensuses on the current
change as a transition, based on new paradigms, time scales, principles,
and strategies that unite diverse themes, from the local to the global scale.
3. The need to urgently tackle the challenges of energy and climate change
The urgency of the need to tackle the challenges of energy and climate
change demands the adoption of exceptional measures in order to achieve
structural transformations by mid-century.
4. The narratives on change contain significant gaps
Significant knowledge gaps hamper the ability to make global change projects
credible, especially in the socio-economic field when it comes to concretising
alternative, more democratic, just, and sustainable social scenarios
with the capacity to systematically reproduce themselves.
5. We are standing at a ‘Critical Crossroads’
If we are still in time to change course and avoid the worst version of ecosocial
collapse, we are obliged to overcome certain dichotomies and, beyond the
‘green and local’, to also address the ‘brown and global’ world, urgently articulating
comprehensive and multilevel perspectives and proposals for transition.
6. Citizens and cities are crucial
Considering the scale of the ecosocial challenge, we have to look towards territories
and cities, since they are the key centres of the social metabolism and
they concentrate the transformative potential of citizens with the capacity to
bring about profound ethical, cultural, political, and socio-economic changes.
7. Towards a constituent process consistent with the change of epoch
The ambition to develop a next-generation constituent project is timely in
terms of content innovation (including ecosocial issues) and as the democratic
expression of a new social (and power) contract between majorities.
8. Change will not be possible without reshaping social imaginaries
The construction of an alternative social imaginary is essential for enabling
ecosocial change, yet values focused on unlimited accumulation and growth,
productivism, consumerism, and individualism continue to be dominant in
the world and in Spain.
9. The need to develop alternative country-strategies
Facing the social failure of readjustment and extreme austerity policies, Spain
needs a Country-Project capable of using existing potentialities to reshape
an attractive future in terms of democracy, social justice, and ecological and
climate rebalance.