Studying the Next System
Our lives can feel very precarious. Many of us are anxious about the future. And our ability to respond effectively to the social, economic, political, climate, ecological, and human crises of these times is undermined by a widespread sense of crisis fatigue. Several years ago, a new government was inaugurated in Washington that promised to “Build Back Better.” But must we only build back better from what the previous president called the “American carnage” of recent years, or must we also find ways to transcend the mounting crises of the past forty and four hundred years?
As students and professors together we move beyond identifying and critiquing problems. Next System Studies seek to explain the relationships between systemic crises, systemic movements, next system design, and system change. A rising global tide of community-based movements and initiatives offer the possibility that from this period of systemic decay may emerge a next system that is more democratic, sustainable, and just. Students engage directly with the experiences and ideas created through these initiatives. We also draw from fertile fields of study in solidarity economics, climate transition, abolition, digital technology, popular constitutionalism, participatory democracy, community wealth, reconstruction, revolutions and social transformation, and social movements.
Our courses and related learning experiences provide an excellent preparations for careers in public policy and public service, social entrepreneurship, cooperative development, community and human services, education and research, labor organizing and worker rights, and social movement organizations and advocacy. We engage directly with ongoing next system efforts both around the world and in our region, meet with practitioners and policy experts, present and discuss readings and films in a seminar format, and perform group work relevant to communities directly served and affected by George Mason University. Our sessions bring together graduate students and accelerated undergraduate students from various programs.
