Reframing ‘Collapse’ Futures: Climate Breakdown, Resistance, and Pluriversal Transitions Beyond the Capitalist World-System

The claim that global capitalist civilisation is headed for ‘collapse’ has become increasingly common among scientists and sustainability researchers. This article will engage critically with the growing literature on global collapse futures by highlighting two problematic tendencies: (1) the tendency to think of ‘the future’ in singular terms; and (2) to use ‘collapse’ or ‘apocalypse’ as the master signifier through which these futures are understood, while obscuring potentials for resilience, resistance, and transformation. In contrast, I suggest decentring ‘collapse’ in analyses of these possible futures while bringing the potential for liberation and ‘pluriversal regeneration’ to the foreground. This does not mean rejecting the concept of collapse, nor does it mean downplaying the potential for widespread catastrophe. Rather, it means balancing this with recognition of the opportunities for political agency, creative world-building, and regenerating worlds and ways of life that have been violently dispossessed by capitalist modernity.