Challenge

 Rapid and transformational economic, cultural and political changes are needed to create well-being for everyone while staying within planetary boundaries.

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There is no single adequate historical comparison for the scale and speed of change needed. The basic conditions for change are well known:

1. The current situation must be recognised as untenable by people with power.
2. There has to be significant pressure for change from civil society, businesses and the public.
3. There has to be a compelling vision for the future.

The first of these conditions is emerging as current broken economies and gross inequalities threaten social stability.

However, either the urgency of the ecological threat is either poorly understood or that understanding is not yet translating into action. The pressure required under the second condition is not yet strong, and the third condition does not yet exist.

Moreover, change is strongly resisted by many people, and not just those with vested interests. Denialism - the active choice to deny reality - is rife. Whether because of individuals' politics, religion or psychology, irrational decision-making is influential. Yet substantial change has occurred in the past from which we could learn lessons. These lessons and their application to current challenges have not been widely explored.

Research questions

How has rapid and transformative change happened in the past? What can we learn from these past changes to help us identify the interventions needed now to accelerate and direct change towards sustainability, social justice and well-being for all?

Are interventions that increase people's agency and freedoms - such as through democracies, internet freedom, and human rights - essential to such change, or do they hinder rapid change? How can the influence of denialism and irrationality be overcome?

Use of the research

This research has lessons for all of the research areas, as well as for all campaigns. Historians are consistently frustrated that lessons from the past are not considered more in policy-making. Campaigns of all sorts are often thought to be of the moment and fail to take into account their historical context.

This research brings together historical researchers and present-day campaigners to learn from each other and identify how the lessons of the past may be applied to the unprecedented challenges of today.