Over the next year or so, I will be publishing in this blog occasional essays that apply Serres’ philosophy to current social, cultural and political debates about the planetary emergency.

The first is entitled The Global Justice Report Through the Lens of Michel Serres’ Common Story

Abstract

The Global Justice Report was published in June 2026. The report sets out a vision for ‘global progress’ in this century that includes ‘human development and equality’ and  ‘planetary habitability’. The authors set out how full income convergence can be achieved by all countries by 2100. The report will be conceived by many as nonsensical wishful thinking. They nevertheless cannot see an alternative except worsening global disparities and conflict between and within nations as the ecological crisis intensifies. The report concludes that  any form of realisation will depend on a ‘broader cultural and intellectual battle’. This article argues that the report needs to be read as both practical and utopian. The former is based on its socio-economic calculations. The latter is the necessity to demand and invent the seeming impossible through philosophical, political and creative work. I explain how the philosophy of Michel Serres can challenge, embolden and diversify the report’s proposals. Specifically, I argue that his formulation of a Common Story offers provocation, invention and inspiration.

Click: GJR Michel Serres (Peter Johnson)