Article
Version 1
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The Great Reset as a Realistic Utopia. A Critical Stance from the Theory of Complex Systems.
Version 1
: Received: 4 July 2024 / Approved: 5 July 2024 / Online: 5 July 2024 (07:28:29 CEST)
How to cite: Tortia, E. C. The Great Reset as a Realistic Utopia. A Critical Stance from the Theory of Complex Systems.. Preprints 2024, 2024070499. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0499.v1 Tortia, E. C. The Great Reset as a Realistic Utopia. A Critical Stance from the Theory of Complex Systems.. Preprints 2024, 2024070499. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0499.v1
Abstract
The Great Reset has been presented by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 as a model through which a “stakeholder economy” would achieve “resilient, equitable and sustainable” economic, social and environmental goals. A more equitable distribution of resources, better working conditions, and ecological transitions are included in a social, economic and environmental reform agenda. This article raises the question of whether the Great Reset project should be interpreted as a “realistic utopia” and what is its reform potential. In an attempt to answer the question of whether the Great Reset as a realist utopia is consistent with the current state of science and philosophy, the article re-examines the idea of utopia in the light of recent philosophical and scientific approaches, such as critical realism in philosophy, so-cial systems theory in sociology and complexity theory in science. A comparative conceptual analysis is carried out and discussed introducing the idea of a realist utopia in Rawls' theory of justice as fairness. In the final discussion, some doubts are raised about the logical coherence, rigor of scientific theorizing, policy prescriptions, and predictive potential of the Great Reset emerging paradigm. It is concluded that utopian projects of radical reform can become realistic when they offer explanations of the deep structural changes that underlie social and economic evolution, drawing from these explanations the policy implications and prescription that can support struc-tural changes, rather than from assumed long-term effects of exogenous shocks or “black swan” events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords
Great Reset; realist utopia; complexity theory; social systems theory; critical realism; justice as fairness
Subject
Social Sciences, Political Science
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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