The refugee crisis, growing impacts of climate change, diminishing resources and escalating conflicts are leading to the physical and psycho-social unsettlement of millions of people. Unsettlement is a way of describing our current human condition caused by our everyday unquestioned practices and the limitations of the way we learned to think. Our hyper-consuming behavior is resulting in the destruction of our world, making our civilization unsustainable and consequently ourselves. We desperately need a new positive vision for the world, and in order to do so, we must seek a deeper understanding of the complexity and the interconnectedness of these issues, combined with a practice of critical self-reflection. Unsettlement is a general condition of the world today that Egypt has now been experiencing for many years. This most recently from the revolution and its aftermath which disrupted the economic, political, social, cultural and psychological order of life. Moreover, there is the arrival of refugees from Syria and Sudan, as well as the general insecurity of everyday life for so many people. Added to this is the arrival of the impacts of climate change, particularly in the delta, as sea level rises…
From the Edge of the World: Confronting Unsettlement and Our Ways of Being
February 5, 2016
