2049: Open Future

While the pace of the present day can cloud the vision, casting out our gaze to the future allows a bigger picture to emerge.

Beyond any one theme, this edition looks forward to imagine the Europe(s) to be in 2049. It will be a new era, shaped by people from current trends, institutions, emissions, and waste. From the evolution of the internet and the ongoing reinvention of monetary systems to landscapes – geopolitical and natural – and everyday routines shaped by the climate crisis, this collection of essays, stories, and interviews, complemented by infographics, seeks to capture life and society in 2049. With this special edition, the Green European Journal contends that the politics of tomorrow start with the politics of today. If we can envisage, design and embrace a brighter, open future, we just might get one too.

Neither an academic nor a policy foresight study, this edition is presented with the aim of thinking about the future to make the present a better place. It was made possible thanks to the amazing work of the editorial team and board, as well as all the Journal’s partners, and was realised in cooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union.

Articles in this edition

13.03.2019
Destination Europe

The Green European Journal's editor-in-chief introduces the edition, journeying through a future Europe that aspires to make life better, brighter and more humane in 2049.

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13.03.2019
Doughnut Economics for a Thriving 21st Century

An interview on daring to dream and designing economics to regenerate life and community, to thrive rather than to grow.

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13.03.2019
Europe: the Next Act

An interview with the Dutch historian on 10 years of crises and where Europe is headed now politics is back.

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13.03.2019
Transnational Democracy? A Piece of Cake

The story of how people won back individual democratic rights from illiberal governments and designed institutions that would protect them for good.

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13.03.2019
The European Republic on the World Stage

Under the leadership of foreign policy chief Sofia Belver-Tamarashvili, the European Republic becomes a global force for social and environmental justice.

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13.03.2019
Three Futures for Trade Unions in 2049

An analysis of the possibilities for organised labour in an age of automation and climate change.

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13.03.2019
From Global Tax Dodging to Worldwide Wellbeing

This imagined news article describes a Europe where revenues recuperated from tax evasion and avoidance are invested back into wellbeing for the benefit of society and the environment.

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13.03.2019
A Walk on Europe’s Wild Side

A look at the past, present and future of rewilding that makes the case for restoring natural wonder to both country and city.

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13.03.2019
Futures Foretold: Climate Fiction

The two stories of Souria's life up to the year 2049. One built around the struggle to contain climate change. One a witness to planetary collapse and missed opportunities

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13.03.2019
Connecting Eurasia: Europe and China in the 21st Century

Presenting "Schuman goes to China", the cooperation on green tech, urban planning and big data that shaped the geopolitics of 2049.

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13.03.2019
Trading Places

On the paradigm shift that awaits, a common-sense approach to rebalancing the troubled structures of international trade in the global economy.

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13.03.2019
Planting the Seeds of Tomorrow’s Agriculture

An agricultural specialist reports on the ground with the Belgian farmers adopting agroecology, the sustainable techniques that let nature do the work.

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13.03.2019
Unconditional Freedom 2049

A comic on European basic income and what it meant for one family among millions.

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13.03.2019
What to Wear? Why Fast Fashion Is Costing the Earth

A report from Finland on textiles and the clothing industry's future in a circular economy.

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13.03.2019
Global Means

Sociologist and thinker reinvents the institutions of the liberal global order. Fly through a 30-year rescue of social rights and the environment from the ravages of unbridled globalisation.

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13.03.2019
A Future of Fair and Democratic European Central Banking

A Eurozone expert envisions how a new monetary policy – changing the way we pay, save, tax and spend – could fix the contradictions pulling Europe apart.

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13.03.2019
Earth, Wind and Solar Energy

The editorial team brings you infographics on the potential of renewable energy in 2049, while Daniel Scholten explores the power struggles its rollout will bring.

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13.03.2019
Europe’s Mobility Is About To Be Rewritten

An expert navigation through breakthrough technologies, environmental challenges and their implications for transport, uncovering the role of cities as laboratories for change.

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13.03.2019
Fast Forward: An die Nachgeborenen (2049)

The Croatian author and philosopher recalls German poet and playwright Bertold Brecht to remind humanity of the untold horrors that inaction leads to.

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13.03.2019
To 2049 and Beyond: A Future History of the Internet

The story of the next 30 years in cyberspace: reinventing privacy online, Digital Donor Cards and where next for the EU after GDPR.

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13.03.2019
Fighting the Backlash: Feminist & LGBTQI+ Futures

Annabelle Dawson gathers 10 voices looking forward to a Europe in 2049 where the gendered structures of power and violence have crumbled in the face of feminism, awareness and equality.

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13.03.2019
Rebooting Humanity: Blueprints for 2049

An interview with Rosi Braidotti, philosopher, reflecting on technology, inequality and the politics of life itself in a world of artificial meat and surveillance capitalism.

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