This article is part of ourEconomy's 'Decolonising the economy' series.
We are living in an extraordinary moment of world history. This is a period of intense, frequent and widespread social revolts, rebellions and revolutions, taking place in synchrony with crises of political systems and economic regimes around the world.
In many ways, the unusual moment we are experiencing today resembles the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when interlinked political-economic crises and social revolts and revolutions completely transformed our world. Many of the democratic rights and liberties that we see as essential today – including universal voting rights, the 8-hour working day, rights to divorce, unionize or national self-determination – have their roots in the social revolts and revolutions of the early twentieth century.
