Speaker
Description
As the ideological frameworks of post-neoliberalism and post-modernism approach their endpoints, we find ourselves in a transitional phase, a period Antonio Gramsci described as the interregnum, where the old order is dying but the new has yet to be born. This in-between moment, marked by uncertainty and disorientation, also holds the paradoxical potential for transformation. Contemporary planning discourses, which once aimed to serve bridging and corrective functions, have increasingly fallen short, remaining largely rhetorical and fragmented. In this context, the interregnum compels us to reimagine the role of planning in the face of systemic crises. Rather than seeking immediate solutions within the constraints of failing paradigms, we must instead foster collective imagination to conceptualise and construct alternative futures. This paper argues for a reorientation of planning thoughts toward a "post-neoliberal" ethos grounded in transformative, inclusive and anticipatory approaches that embrace the uncertainty of the interregnum as a generative space for systemic change.
