Our panel discussion “Whose Future? Global Visions in a Contested World” is now available to watch in full on YouTube and in the Videos section of our website. .
Organized by Global Visions ry and the Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR), the event invited participants to reflect on the state of the world in 2026 and what today’s shifting power dynamics mean for societies most affected by global inequality. As geopolitical tensions rise and global governance faces new contestations, the discussion explored what the idea of a multipolar world means in practice: who gets to define global problems and solutions, and whose lives and futures are prioritized.
The panel also examined whether emerging global power shifts open space for countries and communities outside traditional centers of power—or whether they simply reshape old hierarchies under new forms. Speakers connected these big-picture dynamics to everyday realities such as livelihoods, public services, migration, and active citizenship, while reflecting on possibilities for solidarity, resistance, and alternative futures.
Speakers
Walden Bello is a globally renowned scholar and activist, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and co-founder of Focus on the Global South. He received the Right Livelihood Award in 2003 for his work exposing the impacts of corporate-driven globalization.
Robtel Neajai Pailey is Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics. A Liberian scholar-activist, her research focuses on development, citizenship, and structural transformation in Africa and the Global South.
Bonn Juego is Senior Lecturer in International Development Studies at the University of Jyväskylä and Chair of the Finnish Society for Development Research. His work explores global political economy, particularly crises and alternatives to capitalism.
The discussion was moderated by Max Tallberg and Astrid Aminoff.
