The Nature of Leadership and Political Activism

The Nature of Leadership and Political Activism in Shaping the Post-COVID New Normal

The world is currently experiencing multiple crises – economic, social, environmental, health and political. Compounded by a moral crisis they all combine into a single crisis, a crisis of our civilization, in the face of which we ask: is it possible to dream, to entertain alternatives to construct a project of a better world? “Yes, it is” - creators and disseminators of those alternatives would say. Committed to a new way of relating to one another, to ourselves, and to nature, these progressive agents form a new political movement, a new form of activism empowered by continuous progress in information technology: authorial activism. The profile of political leader required by this movement is substantially different from that prevailing up to now. The act of leading itself is transformed and a new leadership concept emerges from practice. The concept of “political bases”, which was a defined support domain, now requires a set of goals and projects that articulates authorial activism and society in general. This new type of leadership is arising, imbued by the need to create a new prosperity cycle that values social justice, cultural diversity, radical democracy and environmental sustainability.

SPEAKERS Marina Silva is a Brazilian politician and environmentalist. She is currently the spokeswoman for the Sustainability Party (REDE). During her political career, Silva served as a Senator of the state of Acre between 1995 and 2011 and Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2008. She ran for president in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Marco Bonomo is professor of economics at Insper. His main research interests are in macroeconomics, finance and the Brazilian economy. In addition to his academic work, he has also done research for government and multilateral organizations, as the Ministry of Finance of Brazil, IDB, IMF, and the World Bank. He is currently a member of the Economic Cycle Dating Committee of Brazil (CODACE, IBRE-FGV), and of the CVM (Brazilian Securities Exchange Commission) Behavioral Studies Nucleus. He served as president of the Brazilian Econometric Society and of the Brazilian Finance Society. Previously, he has been a faculty member of EPGE-FGV and PUC-Rio. He was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Princeton University."