We are commencing our collaboration at a particular nexus of crises. The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic is only one of many. In fact, we face an acute climate crisis, environmental destruction and exploitation, the continuing rise of nationalism, far-right populism, borders, camps and walls, racism, sexism and authoritarian neoliberal politics, as well as increasing global inequalities. We realise that these multiple crises are symptoms of the much larger crisis of colonial modernity that cannot be seen in the singular but has to be considered in its entanglements. The unwavering belief in ‘development’ and its multiple subscriptions (such as a focus on endless economic growth, efficiency, productivism, consumerism a rhetoric of teleological progress, Western industrialized hyper-capitalist lifestyle based on consumerism as a yardstick, global epistemic divides between the West/Rest, anthropocentrism, and more) are core elements.

Read further our Understanding of Shared Values (pdf).