THE NEW INSTITUTE, together with with leading African thinkers and institutions, announces the release of the Africapitalism Program Handbook on group-owned community-based businesses.

We are pleased to announce that Franciso Sagasti has been appointed Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Knowledge and Innovation for Social Transformations at Universidad del Pacífico.

Join us on May 22, 2025, at the iconic Thalia Theater in Hamburg for an inspiring evening as we, together with the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung and Die ZEIT, celebrate the presentation of the fourth Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis!

For years, legal scholar Maja Groff has been exploring which international laws and institutions are needed to tackle climate change. As Program Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE, she is working to transform some of these ideas into reality.

Kohei Saito rose to fame with his book portraying Karl Marx as a pioneer of a sustainable degrowth economy. Now, at THE NEW INSTITUTE, he aims to develop a democratic planned economy.

As Peru's Minister of Production, José Luis Chicoma wanted to make the food system more fair and more sustainable. Now, at THE NEW INSTITUTE he wants to develop the playbook he wishes he had then.

We are pleased to announce that Sabine Kunst, member of the Board of Trustees at THE NEW INSTITUTE, has been elected as the new President of the Turkish-German University Consortium.

Get ready, book lovers! We're thrilled to announce the launch of a Reading Club at Felix Jud Bookstore.

In an event hosted by THE NEW INSTITUTE, Hamburg's foundations discussed their role in a changing world

An evening lecture with Sabelo Mcinziba discussing the inherent problematic of a seemingly progressive constitution's inability to resolve South Africa's most central issue: land.

We are proud to present the short film “Black Feminism & The Polycrisis”, made by fellows of THE NEW INSTITUTE in Hamburg, as a collaborative project.

Listen to Maha Marouan give her talk titled, “The Case of West and Central African Migrants in the West-Central Mediterranean” at the 2nd Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent at the United Nations.

The planetary conditions that have allowed human civilization to flourish for the past 10,000 years during the Holocene epoch are not just “there,” given, eternal.

In a recent interview for the SPD Augsburg's magazine "direkt," Shota Gelovani, fellow at THE NEW INSTITUTE, shared his insights on the core requirements for democracy in our digital age and the potential threats it faces.

On May 15, 2024 Meredith Whittaker will receive the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis  – We cordially invite representatives of the press to participate.

In his new book, "Wilde Demokratie", Tim Wihl explains how the law can enable rather than prevent dissent that promotes democracy.

In a paper just published in PNAS, an interdisciplinary team of natural and social scientists outline how humanity could stabilise the earth system on which it so urgently depends.

Meredith Whittaker receives the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis 2024

In the aim of exploring progressive futures, two of our programs at THE NEW INSTITUTE this year investigate practices of commons and commoning as alternative ways of living that are less ecologically destructive and socially unjust.

Olafur Eliasson and Sasha Waltz are honored for their cultural innovation and commitment to the protection of democracy and nature.

Introducing a new paradigm for safeguarding earth regulation systems in the Anthropocene

Bruno Leipold offers a comprehensive exploration of Marx’s relationship to republicanism

Fostering global cooperation to safeguard critical Earth system functions

Louis Kotzé on Local Governance.

Plötzlich ausgebürgert – die Autorin Kübra Gümüşay über die Lage der Muslime in Deutschland nach den Anschlägen vom 7. Oktober

Together with the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung and ZEIT, we invite you to celebrate the awarding of the third Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis on May 15, 2024 at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg.

THE NEW INSTITUTE is proud to announce the launch of a pioneering program titled “Black Feminism and the Polycrisis: Configuring a Novel Solution Space Through Intersectional Methodology,” running until June 2024.

We are happy to announce the publication of our Blueprint: Governing Urban Data for the Public Interest

From the City of Hamburg to other European cities: A first (local) legal assessment towards a legal blueprint

A modest attempt to democratize law and legal education for social-ecological change by Isabel Feichtner.

Discursive polarization as a multi-dimensional divergence emerging in and through communication

How can we gain insights into cycling and micromobility flows and the ecosystem in Hamburg to make the city more liveable and sustainable?

A report from our discussion evening at the Hamburger Landesvertretung and our Data Commons Working Group Meeting in Berlin

THE NEW INSTITUTE Program Chair Minna Salami contributes to the Club of Rome with a distinctive lens from Black feminism and African identity, empowering their battle against global crises.

The University of Bremen convinced the jury with its innovative approach of developing an AI-powered analytics dashboard to improve cycling and micromobility in Hamburg.

Lee Tzu-Tung’s “prolonged undercover performance art” and “bionic cryptocurrency” strive towards open-source futures on the blockchain and beyond.

In a fluctuating market, what has staying power? Mitchell F. Chan reflects on the construction of value and art and crypto’s shared status as “receptacles of faith.”

Penny Rafferty is LARPing new forms of organizing into existence. Taking up tools and processes used in the blockchain world, she aims to open wider portals of possibility.

Terra0 uses artistic narratives to propose post-human economies. As they put it: "On the blockchain, no one knows you’re a tree."

How does data sharing for the public good really work?

Our fellow Avram Alpert on his latest book about accepting our limitations and leading more fulfilling lives.

Five wellbeing economy principles for the world

Ideas and solution proposals for data-based improvement of cycling and micromobility wanted.
The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and THE NEW INSTITUTE are jointly launching the Urban Data Challenge Hamburg. The goal is to gain new insights into cycling and micromobility flows in Hamburg in order to make the city more livable and sustainable. The best proposed solution will be awarded €40,000.

How The New Hanse tries to tackle the question of private-public-people partnership in the digital age. What is the role of data in the digital age? What are prominent ways of governing data? How can we best use data for our common good?

What role can the humanities play in shaping our common future? What are the values that guide us in the 21st century? How can we unleash the potential the humanities offer in a time of multiple crises? This discussion paper sketches a program for how the humanities can contribute to addressing the most urgent challenges facing humanity today – in a multidisciplinary, transsectoral, and transformative way.

Ana Prvački on the Lessons of Nature for Societal Change

Carolyn Kirschner on Design for a Planet in Danger

Vanessa Nakate’s speech at the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis 2022

THE NEW INSTITUTE starts a collaboration with the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg

Thea Riofrancos on the Global Economic Order

Kinga Kiełczyńska on Reincarnation and The Limits of Art Production

Emma Enderby on Arts and Speculative Scenarios

Elisabeth Strowick on Stories, Scenarios and Climate Change

Kim Stanley Robinson on Climate Change and Science Fiction

50 years after the report “Limits to Growth”: We know we are destroying our planet – why is it so difficult to act? Fellows, practitioners, artists try to find answers. Join us on our quest.

Imagining possible futures – 50 years after “The Limits to Growth”

Dennis Meadows on The Need for a Mature World

Karimah Ashadu Describes the Limbo Within Capitalism

Alevtina Kakhidze on the Art of Surviving

Vanessa Nakate receives the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis 2022.

Raj Patel on Food Justice

Our colleague Katharina Lima de Miranda on designing new measures of economic and social wellbeing beyond GDP. A policy brief for the G7.

Our fellows Dennis Snower and Paul Twomey on shifting control of personal data from data aggregators to digital consumers. A policy brief for the G7.

Our fellow Ece Temelkuran asks if she will ever be able to return home to Turkey – or worse, will there be a home to return to?

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra on traumatic experiences and healing rituals.

Our fellow Vladimir Safatle on the revolutionary process of rewriting Chile’s dictatorship-era Constitution – and what it means for the rest of the world.

Tobias Müller on Solidarity as Co-Liberation

Ingo Venzke on the World Order

Raj Patel on Food Rebellions

Adam Harvey on Wartime Tech

Markus Gabriel on Invisible Goods

On 28 June, the Helmut Schmidt Future Prize will be awarded in Hamburg - for innovative achievements in the fields of democracy, society and technology.

Max Krahé on Containment.

Hakan Tanriverdi on Cyber Warfare.

Oxana Timofeeva on Denial.

Jonathan White on the European Project.

Our program director Francesca Bria talks to Evgeny Morozov about how digital technology can be democratized.

Georgiy Kasianov on the Politics of Memory.

Tobias Zielony and Maria on Drones.

Vladimir Safatle on Neutrality.

Jeff Deutch on Forensic Truth.

Tobias Zielony and Vicky on Healing.

Tobias Zielony and Tasia on Partying.

Jan-Werner Müller on “the West” and the War.

Janine von Wolfersdorff on Helping People.

Ingo Venzke on the Crisis of International Law.

Max Krahé on the Financial Origins of the War.

Vienne Chan on Social Cohesion.

Dennis Snower on True Prosperity

Ece Temelkuran on Loss and Displacement.

Rüdiger Bachmann on the Case for Harder Sanctions.

Tobias Müller on Extinction Rebellion in Kenya.

Christian Stöcker on Energy Independence.

A message from Alevtina Kakhidze.

Nicole Deitelhoff on the New European Order.

Christoph Möllers on Post-Militarism.

Anna Katsman on Her Family.

Philip Manow on the Geo-Economics of Geo-Politics.

Georg Diez on History and Memory.

In this series, we look at the tragedy in Ukraine – intimately through art and testimonies, and in a wider context through the expertise of our fellows, and joined by other voices we find valuable.

Our fellow Corine Pelluchon on why we need to rethink the way we produce and consume what we eat. A Policy Brief for the G7.

Our fellow Ingo Venzke on an international alliance for transformative and inclusive climate action. A policy brief for G7.

The Think7 Inception Conference.

Tobias Müller on Research and Activism.

Kathrin Böhm on Collaborative Economies.

Tobias Müller talks to activists in Malawi and Kenya.

Our fellow Philip Manow explores the relationship between hyperglobalization and the heterogeneity of global protest movements.

Lin May Saeed on Art and Activism.

Hope is a promise, a contradiction, a quiet revolution.

Markus Gabriel is an internationally acclaimed philosopher of the New Realism school of thought.

Igor Levit is a pianist who connects his art with the social events happening around him.

Ece Temelkuran is a novelist and political commentator whose work explores issues that are controversial in Turkey, such as the Kurdish and Armenian struggles and freedom of expression.

Christof Mauch is a historian with a strong focus on nature and the environment.

Catriona McKinnon is a political theorist who studies climate justice and climate ethics.

Cassie Thornton is an artist and activist who refers to herself as a feminist economist.

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is an independent curator, author and biotechnologist.

Artist and activist Ina-Maria Shikongo talks about the fight for justice and for survival in her native Namibia.

Jonathan White is a political scientist whose interests lie in political sociology and political theory.

Juliet Jacques is a writer, filmmaker and journalist whose practice explores the themes of literature, film, art...

Lea Ypi is a political philosopher whose research centres on issues of global justice, normative political theory...

Hope is promise and practice. Hope is about agency and community, it is both private and political and has the potential to transform us and, in the process, the world.

Raisa Galofre’s work challenges Western narratives around gender and identity, offering an alternative perspective...

Akinbode Akinbiyi is a wanderer. On his walks through cities such as Berlin, Lagos and Johannesburg, Akinbiyi closely observes and documents social realities of the streets.

Against the colorful and radiant backdrop of his paintings, Anjel (born Boris Anje) is celebrated for his depictions of contemporary African dandies.

Sim Chi Yin’s photographic work lays bare the monumental challenges our planet faces, and simultaneously provides personal accounts of human existence by uniting intimate storytelling with documentary photography.

As they describe themselves, Jota Mombaça is a “non-binary bicha” (pejorative Brazilian slang used for gay men), and a “mutant” whose personality is in constant flux.

Social injustice and inequality are at the heart of Kiri Dalena’s work as a visual artist, filmmaker and activist.

Corine Pelluchon on the New Enlightenment.

The continuation of austerity policy would be a threat to European unity.

The destruction of democracy in the middle of the EU cannot be understood without the role of German industry.

Germany has voted. Yet fundamental questions remain open.

Greens and FDP together in a government – that’s a new version of a Grand coalition

Voters are more volatile in the East, due to lower degrees of party identification. Small events can provoke relatively large voter movements.

Bettina Steinbrügge has a real passion for the arts: “With every project I learn something new and am confronted with questions that I had not thought about before.”

Francesca Bria is the program director of "The New Hanse" and President of the Italian National Innovation Fund.

We need institutions for transnational democracy.

There is no reason to be sanguine about a coalition of misfits.

Polarization is a populist strategy; it is not the same as conflict.

We should better not expect too much change from established politics and rather count on social movements.

There is an amazing consensus about ends – but a clear conflict about means.

Let’s talk about taxation!

Should the social sciences only analyze the past and present? Or should they also try to help design the future? THE NEW INSTITUTE aims to support faster and closer connections between social science and the vital changes needed as we respond to climate change, ageing, inequality, and a world flooded with powerful new technologies.

María Inés Plaza Lazo knows how to connect individuals and institutions within and beyond the international art world.

Which dominant thought patterns deserve an update so that social and ecological goals can move to the center of economic activity?

With a background in arts and philosophy, Chus Martínez has been working both as a curator and author.

In his works, encompassing installations, sculpture, print and video, Simon Denny deals with the social and political implications of the technology industry.

Deliberative democracy is an innovative concept to redefine and reinvigorate the reality of citizenship in the 21st century...

“Peek greed” – this is what Sir Paul Collier calls the present state of mind, both in business and society.

Taryn Simon is a conceptual artist who works at the intersection of memory, identity, representation, history and storytelling...

Ole von Uexkull on the Work and Ambition of the Right Livelihood Foundation

We are in this together: An attempt to reflect on the unexpected – the year of the pandemic.

Esther Schipper is a gallerist in Berlin.

Evgeny Morozov is a tech writer and publisher of “The Syllabus”.

Andreas Malm is a climate historian at the University of Lund.

Audrey Tang is the Digital Minister of Taiwan.

Christoph Möllers is Professor for Constitutional Law, Humboldt University Berlin, and Senior Advisor THE NEW INSTITUTE

Corine Pelluchon is Professor for Philosophy, Paris, and incoming fellow THE NEW INSTITUTE

Eugen Baer was a Senior Fellow at THE NEW INSTITUTE.

Geoff Mulgan is Professor at UCL and Senior Advisor at THE NEW INSTITUTE

Yuk Hui is a philosopher living in Berlin and Hong Kong.

Pankaj Mishra is a writer and lives in London.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the vulnerability of our very existence, and heavily disturbs daily routines that hitherto have been taken for granted.

It is hard to think of a period when every single person on the planet was facing the same threat, forming a collective of vulnerables...

In contemporary societies we can observe a growing tension when it comes to the relation between citizens and experts.

Lottie Cunningham Wren is a lawyer active in the fight to protect the rights of the indigenous people and the afro-descendants in Nicaragua.

Homi Bhabha was the perfect person to talk to about the outcome of the U.S. election – a scholar of multiculturalism with a keen eye for...

Joe Biden is the new President-elect – and Democrats have long insisted that an increasingly multi-ethnic population will favor them in the long-run.

Daniel Ziblatt is sitting in his study in Newton, not far from the Harvard campus where he normally teaches as the Eaton Professor of the Science of Government...

THE NEW INSTITUTE is opening its second call for fellowships for the program “The Future of Democracy”...

"Well, here we are." This is the first sentence in Jean-Paul Sartre's play "No Exit", in which the four protagonists Garcin, Inès, Estelle and an enigmatic figure, the valet, find themselves in the underworld. They do not know how they ended up there.

How would our perception of ethics and politics change if we were to understand the body as the starting point of our experience?

What is the meaning of death? Or, as the philosopher would say: finitude? In other words, if live must end - isn’t that the ultimate limit to our existence, the very opposite of freedom?

What will this coming decade be – the ten years, some say, that are essential if we want to change the course of things, tackle climate change before more tipping points are reached.

THE NEW INSTITUTE issues its first fellowship call – focusing on “The Foundations of Value and Values”.

Markus Gabriel, Germany’s most innovative contemporary philosopher, will become a fellow at THE NEW INSTITUTE.

Lea Ypi has an academic mind and an activist heart. She aims for an “activist political theory”, as she states in her book on global justice.

Geoff Mulgan is one of the most curious and constructive thinkers and practitioners around. He used to work in politics, he founded and ran big think tanks...

Care is central to human emotions, feeling and thinking. It is the essence of what it is to be human – to care for the well-being of others; to provide care for them; and to act with care in regard to them.

Caught up in the rushed busyness of our countless everyday concerns — a cloudy stir of the truly pressing and deeply trivial — we often tend to forget and thus to neglect what we most care about.

Why is courage a key virtue, especially in the context of the ecological, economic, social and political challenges of the 21st century?

Courage is one of the classical virtues. But it is a subtle virtue. Courage can easily spill over into folly or hubris. Yet all communities need at least some people to be courageous, and not just in a martial sense.

Creativity is one of the most valuable tools we have as humans. To think creatively is to think laterally and make connections between seemingly disparate ideas or situations.

What does it mean to be committed? What kind of relationship is commitment and what does it involve? Commitment can be shown to a person, but also to a thing, an idea or an institution.

On art, technology, and the Seed Phrase podcast.

This workshop, held from 31 May to 2 June 2023 at the Catholic Academy in Berlin, sought to explore the renewed interest in the commons and the common good starting from practical and intellectual projects that recenter collective practices in ways of living and provisioning.

by Edmund Waldstein

In this short essay, I will firstly problematize the notion of communio in dogmatics and compare it to the problems that arise when referring to a common good or common goods in secular contexts...

In my book Gemeinschaft der Ungewählten [Unchosen Together], I I set out to argue for what might be called a fundamental right to community.

"Communio" – is this an issue of religion? The connection between religion and communion might not be obvious at first sight. Some people might think of religion as contemplation, of an individual religious practice.

By Lone N. Sorensen

Here, you can find all our fellow publications of the year 2022–2023

Find out more about all publications by our fellows from 2020–2022

In this report, with a foreword by our Founding Director Wilhelm Krull, we outline the evolution of our program and research architecture in the founding and construction phase, as it entered its second full year of fellowship work in 2022. Learn more about our foundational programs “The Foundation of Value and Values”, “The Future of Democracy”, and “Socio-Economic Transformation”, meet our first cohort of fellows and read about events from the early days of THE NEW INSTITUTE.

The Annual Report for the Academic Year 2022–2023 represents the first year of operation of our new Academic Directors, Markus Gabriel and Anna Katsman, during which a new program logic was implemented. The report covers the Academic Year from September 2022 to the end of June 2023. Learn more about our three research areas and two new programs, “Depolarizing Public Debates” and “Governing the Planetary Commons”. The foreword was written by our Academic Directors.

This book offers an exploration of the role of neoliberal economic policies in relation to cultural and political factors in promoting an illiberal backlash against democracy in various countries over the last 15 years.

The OKOBI Model leverages Africapitalism to tackle unemployment in Africa through shared entrepreneurship and collective ownership. This is an invitation to explore partnerships with OKOBI in support of sustainable entrepreneurship and inclusive economic growth in African regions.

We are pleased to release our 2023-2024 annual report, which captures a year of intellectual risk-taking, creative friction – and, most importantly, the urgent pursuit of a more just and sustainable future. Our third cohort of fellows convened 46 international scholars and practitioners working on topics such as depolarizing public debates, reimagining the commons, applying Black feminist perspectives to the polycrisis, governing the planetary commons, and redefining human flourishing. And we put our ideas into action – resulting in more than 50 academic publications, 86 events, and 100 public appearances. Enjoy browsing!

In sociology, countless efforts have been made to theoretically grasp the concept of community, and various approaches aim to take post-traditional phenomena of community building and practices into account.

My contribution addresses the constant clashes between the legal orders of states and International Organizations (IOs). It is my argument that developing a conception of a global Minimal Constitution, would ameliorate that situation in terms of checks of power, and significantly contribute to the global common good – that is, to the commoning of the political matters that are important.

In 2013 a colleague and I at the German chemical company BASF formulated the following question: Why do people in business contexts tend to act against their own value judgements?

How can there ever be a “Commonist” constitution – a constitution that does not leave the citizens forming the polity alone and on their own, but enables them to form meaningful relationships based on solidarity?

Comment on Adrian Vermeule, The Common Good in Constitutional Law

Remarks by David Bollier, Director, Reinventing the Commons Program Schumacher Center for a New Economics, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Remarks by Adrian Vermeule, Ralph S. Tyler, Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

This handbook supports the need to fundamentally
rethink corporate community engagement in Africa—
in a way that prioritises sustainable, community-driven
growth, through group or collective entrepreneurship.

A Systemic Blueprint Rooted in Africapitalist Principles

Why shouldn't a village be able to start a business? As chair of the Africapitalism program at THE NEW INSTITUTE, Kenneth Amaeshi aims to nudge more people into collective entrepreneurship based on African traditions. This concept is already working surprisingly well in his home country of Nigeria.

A team at THE NEW INSTITUTE led by Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, a researcher specializing in capitalism, has developed a new approach to better understand the contradictory and speculative role of financial markets in times of impending collapse. They call it “Collapse Finance”.