Futures of Global Catastrophic Risks and Societal Collapse

Submission deadline for this special issue of Futures: 21 March 2027

Guest editors: Danilo Brozović (University of Skövde, Sweden); Florian Ulrich Jehn (FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany); Elena Kavanagh (Arctic Youth Network and University College Cork, Ireland); and Just Collapse’s Kate Booth (University of Tasmania, Australia).

“Against this background, this Special Issue seeks to provide a platform for critical and interdisciplinary exploration of futures associated with global catastrophic risks and societal collapse, while establishing collapse as a substantive, methodological, and ethical problem for futures research. The issue adopts a holistic perspective structured around two interconnected domains of Earth systems: natural systems, including climate dynamics, ecosystems, biodiversity, and resource systems; and human systems, including social, economic, political, technological, cultural, and governance structures. We also welcome contributions that question the boundary between these domains, including arguments that the human enterprise and the ecosphere should be understood as one integrated Earth system.”

More information: Futures | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

Tasmania/Lutruwita is where Just Collapse resides. New research says it’s the safest place on Earth in a global catastrophe. That’s a worry! In a globalised world, we’re not that isolated, we are definitely not self-sufficient in food, democracy is under as much pressure as anywhere else, inequality is growing, and very little is decentralised. Instead of fantasising about impossible futures, act now for a Just Collapse!

New research article: No Place to Hide? Regional Resilience and Vulnerability to Global Catastrophic Risk – Jehn – 2026 – Global Challenges – Wiley Online Library

Collapse Camp 2026 has just wrapped up in Germany. A huge success by all accounts!

Collapse Camp aims to act now because the “…existing systems are already unstable or reaching their limits, crises and disasters are increasing. The compulsion to grow and the promise of eternal progress through technology are no longer viable. We see climate catastrophe & extreme weather, supply bottlenecks for food, raw materials and medicines, species extinction and habitat loss, strengthening of fascism, militarization, dismantling of the welfare state, and alienation, anxiety and depression. Instead of suppressing, we rely on solidarity-based preparation. We do not see collapse as an apocalyptic end, but as a steady increase in crises and catastrophes. But even if disasters can no longer be prevented, we want to work for justice and reduce suffering.”

What could a Collapse Camp look like where you live? What would the theme be? What would be the priorities in the programme? How would you start organising?

Mutual Aid is an essential part of a Just Collapse. In addressing inequity and inequality, mutual aid can help house and feed people, build a sense of belonging and solidarity, and contribute to networks and movements standing against the far right and other forms of oppression. Article by Abby Lee Hood:

“After the tornado, I accepted my first food handout from neighbors. I spent hours alongside strangers picking up debris and insulation, using tools lent by people standing on street corners, and eating food they brought us. I’d never experienced such a coming together.

As we faced what seemed like endless struggles for our neighborhood, we’ve continued to volunteer, clean up disaster areas, feed and care for each other …

These experiences taught me the value of mutual aid, and I wondered: How do we continue this momentum and make it permanent? What can other communities do to implement mutual aid in their regions?”

Many who are aware of unfolding and irreversible collapse are familiar with the planetary boundary diagram. Updated periodically by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the green center at the heart of the diagram is our ‘safe operating zone’. The spectrum of yellow, red, and purple signify how the boundaries of this zone are being transgressed, contributing to an unsafe biosphere and a loss of habitable Earth. These transgressions are not a projection: these are depictions of real-time biosphere degradation based on a synthesis of a huge body of scientific research.

Yet, this diagram can be deceptive. Because despite transgressing around eight of the nine boundaries, the ‘safe operating zone’ is depicted as intact. The diagram appears to show that this zone still exists and that is still possible to return to a secure and stable world. A better, brighter future is possible!

In reality, we now inhabit a world of yellow, orange, and red, with only a tinge of green remaining. There is no safe center to return to. Many are already aware of this as they live in places that are dangerous, toxic, lacking basic resources like food and water, and subject to climate extremes like heatwaves and floods. These people and communities tend to be in poorer places – places already collapsed through processes like colonialism and capitalism.

This is why a politics of collapse is about socio-ecological justice – acting now for a Just Collapse!

More information on the planetary boundaries and acting for a Just Collapse.

If irreversible collapse changes politics and activism, what do we call this politics? In this new article, A/Prof Kate Booth looks at ‘post-anarchism’ as a way of articulating and acting for socio-ecological justice in decline and disaster:

“… post-anarchism is about living between worlds– between the dying, collapsing world of global capital and climate-ecological destruction and the unknown future worlds of disparate people and places created as collapse intensifies and unfolds. Many find themselves inhabiting two worlds at once – in one world oppressed by capitalism and imperialism and in another world sustained (even if marginally) by the very same processes.”

The full article is published in the first volume of the Lutruwita Activist and Mutual Aid journal. All proceeds go towards establishing a social centre in nipaluna/Hobart, Australia.