19-21 sept 2006,
Uppsala, Sweden
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 The world at the beginning of the 21st century is deeply contradictory.
There is among many an increasing disaffection with the state of humanity and a growing concern about the unprecedented damage being done to Planet Earth. At the same time, there are numerous examples, at different levels of society, of actions for positive changeand alternative lifestyles. In order to analyse the present situation and what we may be facing in the future, and to propose bold and innovative alternatives to the predominant development trajectory, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation has, over the past few years, devoted considerable attention and energy to the What Next project. |
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Drawing on the Foundation’s three decades of work in the field of development, the What Next project aims to contribute to the much-needed discussion about crucial issues in the next few decades. Under this initiative a diverse group of concerned people – civil society activists, academics, national and international policymakers and civil servants, and media representatives – has come together to engage in intense debate and dialogue. What Next is a sequel, roughly 30 years later, to the Foundation’s What Now project, which culminated in the 1975 Dag Hammarskjöld Report What Now: Another Development and the monograph Another Development: Approaches and Strategies (1976). The Report was launched as an independent contribution to the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Development and International Cooperation. With a print run of 100,000 copies in six languages, the Report came to play a significant role in the development debate during the following years. |
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 What Now introduced the concept of ‘Another Development’, which advocated a different content and direction for development. It proposed a set of principles for alternatives to the established order and for the reformation of international relations and the United Nations system. Since the Report was published, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation has consistently explored and elaborated on alternative development perspectives in seminars and publications. The What Now Report was envisaged as a ‘tribute to the man, who more than any other, gave the United Nations the authority which the world needs more than ever’ – Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General 1953–1961 and one of the last century’s most remarkable international leaders. |
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 The year 2005 marked the centenary of the birth of Dag Hammarskjöld, during which much international attention was given to his life and work. New material about Hammarskjöld was presented and assessed in the context of already existing knowledge. A more complete picture is beginning to emerge of a person with an exceptional background in the field of economics, international law and international negotiations, which he used to stretch the established limits for diplomatic action and create new ways and means of handling international crises. His famous speech in 1954 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York comes to mind: ‘In modern international politics – aiming toward that world of order which now more than ever seems to be the only alternative to disruption and disaster – we have to approach our task in the spirit which animates the modern artist. We have to tackle our problems without the armour of inherited convictions or set formulas, but only with our bare hands and all the honesty we can muster. And we have to do so with an unbreakable will to master the inert matter of patterns created by history and sociological conditions.’ It is our hope that the What Next project’s critical scrutiny of the predominant development path and the alternatives proposed bear the stamp of such a spirit. |
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Download programme
folder for the forum. |
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Download "Carbon trading – A critical conversation on climate change, privatisation and power". |
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Download the What Next Volume I: Setting the Context! (4.8 mb) |
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