“Many creative writers keep journals; the sociologist’s need for systematic reflection demands it.” -C. Wright Mills

Geoff Mulligan at Prospect offers this sober assessment of the directions in which capitalism may evolve as a result of the crisis. He identifies a number of existing trends, e.g., FOSS, cooperatives, personal carbon accounts, and socialized health care, and concludes with the claim that it is time to use our imagination.

I wholeheartedly agree. And that is my current project for the Right to the City Alliance’s academic phalanx. Defining one’s own vision of the future is no simple task. Yesterday, as I began to despair in preparing yet another idealistic vision of the future that is likely to be lost in the electronic wastelands of the internet, I realized that, lost or not, the process of defining one’s own vision is a vital step forward for us as individuals and as a community.