Theories of globalisation and planetary sustainability

Current theorisations of the superdiversity and supercomplexity dimensions of globaliation are generated largely from the ‘global North’. This chapter is framed within Braidotti’s analysis of advanced capitalism and Connell’s Southern theory critique of globalization theories. Connell’s propositions for generating alternative epistemologies are deployed as the starting point for thinking about global knowledges differently. Based on data generated from three collaborative projects with Aboriginal communities in Australia, it is argued that Aboriginal knowledge frameworks have complex systems whereby knowledge moves from local to regional to global without losing connection with the materiality of local places. These frameworks are translated into contemporary forms that offer alternative onto-epistemologies for planetary sustainability. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how these alternative onto-epistemologies might contribute to our thinking about superdiversity and supercomplexity in order to confront the impact of neoliberal economic globalisation on the (super)diversity and (super)complexity of planetary life forms.