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On or around 12 January 2023, Listening Posts were conducted, mainly online, in seventeen countries from five continents, yielding twenty-one written reports. We are living in a time of perma-crisis from a political, economic, social, and environmental perspective. The illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia enters its second year, Covid vaccines have reduced the incidence and severity of the pandemic, now in its fourth year, the climate crisis continues unabated and populism prevails around the world.
Themes identified include bewilderment and survival anxiety, problematic relationships with self and others, broken social and political trust, and intergenerational conflict. People are hypervigilant and on high alert for a new crisis. They experience social melancholy and existential precariousness. What happens when the future stops being synonymous with hope, promise, and planning and begins to be associated with concepts such as threat, disenchantment, anxiety? Adults struggle to read and embrace the regenerative impulses that come from younger persons, exacerbating intergenerational conflict. At present it seems as though there is a complete rupture between the generations that needs to be fully acknowledged and reckoned with to offer the possibility of authentic, sustainable reparation and equitable growth where all can flourish.
“Is there still time? This question is asked and left unanswered.” (Brazil)