Abstract
Abstract ReFuture investigates the comeback of the need for political planning and its role in revitalising democratic governance. After decades in which politics was mainly interpreted as day-to-day administration, an era of impending emergencies requires to build new capacities: thinking about possible futures is key to maintaining democracy’s ability to act and plan vis-à-vis epochal challenges like climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline in the planning capacity that has characterised Western democracies since the end of the 20th century appears to be replaced by a resurgence of the need for political planning, in many forms, including institutional responses in the form of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) programme and increasing focus of grassroots civil society actors both on proposing alternatives to institutions and the public, and on practicing such alternatives in prefigurative experiences. ReFuture investigates this “return of the future” in the Italian case, through an interdisciplinary effort which includes intellectual and political history, economics, and social movement studies. Italy was one of most heavily affected countries in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Italian government was among the chief proponents of the NGEU programme within the EU framework, and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) launched in 2021 within this framework represents an intersection between the response to the pandemic crisis and the project of an “ecological transition” meant to address the climate emergency. Which forms is the return of the future, and thus the comeback of the most traditional democratic tool to address it (i.e. political planning), taking within the Italian political context? Our project aims to answer this question by focusing on three different spheres: the intellectual and political debate, state policy, and grassroots civil society. First, through the lenses of intellectual and political history, we will investigate the role of political planning in European liberal democracies in the first part of 20th century, its crisis in the neoliberal era, and its current state in the intellectual and political debate. Secondly, through the lenses of general equilibrium model, we will assess the impact of the planning policies put in place through NGEU and the NRRP on the institutions involved in addressing the pandemic and the ecological transition. Thirdly, through the lenses of social movement studies, we will analyse the visions of the future, planning practices, and prefigurative experiences of grassroots civil society actors vis-à-vis the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergencies. All in all, the project aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the way in which actors in the Italian society are developing tools to address the future in a context of impending emergencies, and of the potential of such tools for revitalising democracy.
Results achieved
The UNIBO research unit fully achieved the objectives established ù by building solid historical knowledge on the centrality of political planning in 20th century liberal democracies, analysing the transnational debate around planning that originated in Europe and in the USA starting from the 1920s until the 1940s. This enabled a larger reflection on the meaning and usefulness of the concept/practice of planning in contemporary liberal democracies, in particular with respect to the climate crisis. The project focused mainly on two historical and theoretical contexts: Red Vienna and the American New Deal. In this respect, the research unit reconstructed the initial phase of the socialist calculation debate between the neoliberal Friedrich August von Hayek and the socialist Otto Neurath and offered a political-theoretical analysis of the American New Deal, concerning the relation between State and society. The information and dissemination activities of the UNIBO research unit regarded participation in national and international conferences and workshops listed below (under conference contributions). Furthermore, specific scientific findings regarding the socialist calculation debate have been published in two collective volumes (listed below). The activities of the research unit at UNIBO were conducted in distinct phases: Months 1–4: Comprehensive review of international literature concerning Red Vienna and the initial phase of the socialist calculation debate. Months 5-10: This research phase was devoted to Hayek’s scientific works on epistemology and on his critique of the concept of planning. The scientific unit analyzed Hayek’s critique of social sciences and his rejection of calculation in nature. Finally, it disclosed why according to Hayek only prices solve the dispersal of knowledge and why planning is intrinsically totalitarian. Months 11–16: The unit focused on Otto Neurath’s scientific works by analyzing his conception of planning, his role in Red Vienna’s planning, the concepts of war economy and of incommensurability and the role played by human knowledge in the articulation of collective plans. Months 16-17: The results of the debate between Neurath and Hayek were analyzed and discussed with the aim of proving their utility in envisioning possible paradigms for an ecological planning today. Months 18-24: The unit focused its research on the role of the New Deal in the framework of democratic planning, focusing especially on the production of legitimacy for the political order that Rooseveltian policies were able to create, maintaining a democratic constitutional structure in the face of rising fascism. The research has generated significant scientific output, including: Research Paper: A scientific article titled "On the origins of the socialist calculation debate: Incommensurability and planning in Red Vienna" is currently under preparation for submission to an international peer-reviewed journal. Book chapters: O. Malatesta, Neurath, Hayek and ecological planning. The return of the socialist calculation debate in the age of climate change, in M. Rategni (ed.), Marx in the Anthropocene, Orthotes (forthcoming 2026). O. Malatesta, Planificación y neoliberalismo entre epistemología y teoría política. El debate entre Hayek y Neurath sobre el cálculo en especie, in C. Catalina, J. Maiso, P. Martínez (eds.), Transformaciones del capitalismo contemporáneo, Guillermo Escolar, Madrid, 2025 (forthcoming 2026). Conference Contributions: Scientific findings were presented at several national and international venues, including: 16/01/2026 International conference: The return of the future: Democracy and political planning in the age of emergencies, Facoltà di Scienze politico-sociali, Scuola Normale Superiore di Firenze, Presentations by Michele Filippini and Olimpia Malatesta within the panel: The concept of planning in intellectual and political history. 11-13/09/2025 Annual conference of the Associazione italiana di storia del pensiero politico. Organization of the panel Liberalismo e pianificazione democratica (together with Michele Filippini, Francesco Raschi). Presentations by: Michele Filippini, Il New Deal e la pianificazione democratica. Olimpia Malatesta, Il dibattito sulla pianificazione tra Otto Neurath e Friedrich August von Hayek. 26-28/06/2025 International conference: Historical Materialism Conference Paris 2025: Conjurer la catastrophe, Université Paris Dauphine. Presentation: Otto Neurath’s ecological and democratic planning in the age of climate disaster. 05/05/2025 Conference: Il problema dello Stato. Filosofia, rivoluzione, trasformazione. Facoltà di Scienze umanistiche, Università degli Studi di Catania. Presentation: Stato e pianificazione nella filosofia politica neoliberale. 11-14/03/2025 International conference: Marx in the Anthropocene: Capital, Nature, Ecology, Environment, Università IUAV di Venezia. Presentation: Economic rationalities and ecological planning: The return of the socialist calculation debate in the age of climate change. 29-30/01/2025 International conference: Transformaciones del capitalismo contemporáneo: Estado, economía y cultura, Facultad de Filosofía, Departamento de Filosofía y Sociedad, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Presentation: Epistemología y teoría política del neoliberalismo y de la planificación: El debate entre Hayek, Mises y Neurath. 28-29/11/2024: International workshop: Politics, Ontologies, Ecologies: Democratic planning and labour alliances beyond growth, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. Presentation: Economic rationalities and democratic planning: Knowledge and “incommensurability” in the socialist calculation debate. 22/11/2024: Seminar cycle: Per una teoria critica della cultura. Cultura, politica e società da Francoforte a oggi, Dipartimento di Scienze umanistiche, Università degli Studi di Palermo. Presentation: Neoliberalismo e pianificazione di fronte alla crisi climatica. 10/04/2024 Conference: Sovranità e neoliberalismo al tempo delle crisi, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. Presentation: Sovranità e pianificazione nell’epoca del neoliberalismo. 18-20/01/2024 International conference: Dentro la società neoliberale. Declinazioni filosofiche e sociologiche del contemporaneo, Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca sociale, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca. Member of the scientific and organizing committee. Presentation: Conoscenza, pianificazione ed evoluzione in Friedrich August von Hayek e Alfred Müller-Armack.Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Michele Filippini
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento delle Arti
Coordinatore:
Scuola Normale Superiore(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 72.500,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
