Are you ready to be a time rebel?

There is an emerging global movement of ‘time rebels’ dedicated to intergenerational justice and long-term thinking. Here are links to some of the most important organisations, thinkers and doers that are leading the way and that have inspired my book The Good Ancestor.

Politics and Public Policy

Afro-Rithms from the Future – using play to build anti-racist futures

Alpenglow – promoting long-term thinking in UK public policymaking

Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity – leading academic think thank for long-term post-growth ideas

EIT Climate-KIC – European long-termism project

Dark Matter Labs – strategic design lab developing ‘experimental probes’ into long-term thinking, co-founded by Indy Johar

David Lammy – UK politician who gave an incredibly inspiring talk called ‘Climate Justice Can’t Happen Without Racial Justice at TED’s 2020 Countdown event on the climate crisis.

Foundation for Democracy & Sustainable Development – UK think tank focusing on future generations

Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations – German think tank for intergenerational justice

Future Generations Commissioner for Wales – public office working for tomorrow’s generations

Graham Smith – leading scholar on democratic futures and citizens’ assemblies

Immy Kaur – long-term community builder

Institute for Ecological Civilization – based in San Diego, comitted to long-term wellbeing of people and planet

Intergenerational Foundation – advocating for intergenerational fairness in the UK

International Futures Forum – jam-packed with powerful concepts and tools for long-term thinking, including Three Horizons

Jemilah Mahmood – pioneering Malaysian public health official and advocate with an intergenerational vision

Layla F Saad – racial justice activist and writer, host of the Good Ancestor Podcast and author of the powerful book Me and White Supremacy

Our Children’s Trust – fighting for future generation rights in the US

Participation in Long-Term Decision-Making (PALO) – Finnish research project

Pardee Centre for the Study of Longer-Range Futures – academic centre for futures thinking

RAND Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition – specialists in long-range policy analysis

School of International Futures – foresight thinking for future generations

SITRA – innovative Finnish agency for strategic thinking around long-term futures

Research Institute for Future Design, Japan – citizen-based long-term policy planning (website currently only in Japanese); here’s an article in English on Future Design by its founder

Simon Caney – University of Warwick political theorist working on intergenerational justice

Today for Tomorrow – campaigning for a Future Generations Commissioner for the UK

World Future Council – working to bring intergenerational justice into the heart of policy-making across the globe.

Ecology and Economics

2040 film – envisioning an ecological future based on today’s technologies

Circle Economy – leading the Dutch regenerative economy

Civic Square – thinking long about civic infrastructure

Club of Rome – network of long-term thought leaders in public policy and systems thinking

David Suzuki Foundation – holistic long-thinking about the planet

Doughnut Economics Action Lab – putting economist Kate Raworth’s ideas into action

Exploration Architecture – Michael Palwyn’s studio for regenerative design

Fab City Global Initiative – circular economies, FabLabs, cosmo-local production

Fridays for Future – Greta Thunberg and students worldwide striking for climate action

Green Belt Movement – planting and empowering for the long-term across Africa

Janine Benyus – founder of the Biomimicry Institute, introducing her revolutionary thinking

Parents for Future – the parents’ arm of Fridays for Future

Rewilding Britain – taking regenerative thinking into the living world

Tellus Institute – systems thinking for a planetary civilization

Society, Culture and Beyond

Andri Snær Magnason – writer, poet, imaginative journeyer across time, author of On Time and Water

BBC Deep Civilisation – article series on long-term thinking

Bern House of Generations – a public space for intergenerational diaologue and learning in Bern, Switzerland

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk – Cambridge University research centre for very long-term thinking

Deep Time Walk – take a journey into the deep history of the living Earth with this ingenious and inspiring app

Future Library – Katie Paterson’s visionary 100-year art project

Future of Humanity Institute – Oxford University research centre for very long-term thinking

Good Ancestor Movement Japan – started by Shoukei Matsumoto, Buddhist monk and translator of The Good Ancestor into Japanese

Into Eternity – beautiful and disturbing film about the Onkalo nuclear waste facility in Finland

Jim Moray – the folk singer’s Sounds of Earth is amongst the best songs about long-term thinking

Kim Stanley Robinson – the greatest living fictional writer about the future (in my humble opinion)

Long Now Foundation – global thought leaders on long-term thinking

Longpath – smart thinking for being a good ancestor, founded by Ari Wallach

Longplayer – Jem Finer’s 1000-year-long music project

Long Time Project – cultural interventions with a long view, including a toolkit for action

Stuart Candy – pioneering experiential futures designer and teacher

Svalbard Global Seed Vault – preserving biodiversity for the next 1000 years

Superflux – design agency focused on experiential futures