Narrow Results

This chapter begins by addressing the food, energy, and water trilemma. A critique of the impact of neoliberalism that traces the transition from industrial to financial capitalism follows. The trade-off arising from improvements in living standards and environmental impact is then explored. In a context where socioeconomic and cultural differences result in conflicting views of what is virtuous, there is a problem of trust. The central proposition is that a new frame grounded in New Institutional Economics (NIE) is required. Fintech and distributed ledger technology (DLT) offer a unique way of building the essential institutional infrastructure required to overcome the problem of trust. Examples showing how fintech can address climate change follow. Whilst these initiatives are to be applauded, new international institutional infrastructure is required to enable fintech to realise its potential. Examples of future possibilities are presented. The chapter concludes by making the case for a new paradigm that prioritises international cooperation because unrestrained competition will lead to rising temperatures, mass migrations, and the collapse of civilisation as we know it.

The present lecture engages a speculative reading of “The Masters”, a science-fiction novel written by Ursula K. Le Guin to narrate a state where citizens are governed by the law of negating mathematics education. In this oppressive context, Le Guin crafts a collective whose desire to practice mathematics subverts the fear for death used as punishment for mathematical heresy. This allows to ponder into thinking as “negation” and “affirmation” and, consequently, to speculate two interweaved assemblages of mathematics education; first, the assemblage where negating mathematics enforces masculine knowledge enclosures and second, the assemblage of affirming the practice of mathematics as knowledge commons. The chapter contributes by rethinking of mathematics education as/for/with the commons and by discussing about speculation as an act of thinking.