Kohei Saito: At The End Of Progress
On Monday 8th June from 7PM-9PM UTC+0 online via YouTube, Kohei Saito of the University of Tokyo will be discussing the launch of his new book with Carla Reemtsma, co-founder of climate activist group Fridays for Future Germany. You can find out more about the event below:
“In his new book, Kohei Saito draws a sobering balance sheet of our present: central ecological foundations of our prosperity are already destroyed, while authoritarian forces and wars are increasing worldwide. At the same time, economic growth in the global North is stagnating – a sign that capitalism is reaching its limits, increasingly shaped by the power of global techno-oligarchies.
Is the crisis an opportunity? Saito disagrees decisively. Instead of a departure, an era of chronic emergencies awaits us: scarcity, social destabilization and natural disasters will shape our future – not abundance, acceleration or emancipation. Against this backdrop, Saito advocates acknowledging the end of the progress narrative and developing a re-imagined, democratic planned economy to secure our remaining freedoms.
The event offers the opportunity to discuss this diagnosis and think together about perspectives beyond disaster capitalism.
Kohei Saito talks to climate activist Carla Reemtsma about the political consequences of his analysis, as well as the current challenges and possibilities for action in the fight for climate justice.
Author: Dr. Kohei Saito (1987) is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo. He received his doctorate from the Humboldt University in Berlin in 2016 and is co-editor of the Mitherausgeber der Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. In 2018 he was awarded the prestigious Isaac Deutscher Prize and in 2020 he received the JSPS Prize of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Sciences for Outstanding Young Researchers. His book “Systemsturz” became an international bestseller and sold over half a million copies in Japan alone.
Carla Reemtsma is a climate activist and co-founder of Fridays for Future Germany. She has been committed to climate justice for years and brings a central voice of the young climate movement into the discussion.”
You can watch the event here.