COGITO

1. The Swedish Green Think tank

2. NGO in society
Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Formal
Non profit Profit Informal

3. • “Since its founding in 2005, Cogito has aimed to broaden and
deepen the public debate and foster change in a spirit characterised
by ecological concern and human solidarity. We foreground
constructive ideas and practical initiatives to demonstrate that a
sustainable society is within reach.
• Rooted in green thinking, our work seeks to further livelihoods and
lifestyles that are sustainable in the long-term across the globe. This
necessitates critically examining dominant economic and political
paradigms and power structures, articulating viable alternatives, as
well as exploring the means by which democracy can be
strengthened and developed.
• Our approach and work methods are characterised by openness
and a readiness to question the received opinion, including truths
that are considered to be self-evident within the green
movement. “

4. • web page www.cogito.nu
• seminars and events
• book and publications
• since 2005
• party finance + own + projects
• self appointed board (now, not from start)

5. Ideology and Politics
Political philosophy conventionally refers to three
foundational political ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, and
socialism. However, there is no comparable established
philosophical tradition applicable to the various kinds of
ecological or green thought. The emergence of green or
environmentalist parties in the 1970s has destabilised
traditional categories of political thought.
Cogito explores and scrutinises existing forms of green
thinking and political praxis: Are we witnessing the
crystallisation of a new way of political thinking, which is no
less concise and coherent than traditional ideologies?
Moreover, how is green thought being translated into
concrete politics?

6. Peace and Development
Ours is an age marked by armed conflict or the threat of armed conflict. Acts
of war do not only lay waste to lives and resources but also do harm to nature
and the environment with long-term effects. Although armed conflict may
partly be caused by a set of very different factors – political, historical, ethnic,
social, economic, and cultural – the struggle over scarce resources and limited
environmental space is often an underlying element.
One of the most crucial issues today is how to deal with the circumstances
that give rise to conflicts, in preventive and proactive fashion before they
become violent. The present approach to ”conflict resolution” by way of
military intervention, not only within the framework of the UN but external to
it as well, is alarming. In comparison with the resources spent on military
armament and intervention, the scope given to non-violent and civil methods
of conflict resolution is neglected. This applies globally as well as to the
situation within the EU and in Sweden.
The objective of Cogito’s work in the area of peace and development is to
throw into relief the role of scarce resources as the cause of conflict, to
explore the possibilities of peaceful prevention of violent conflict, and to
examine methods of non-violent conflict resolution.

7. Environment and Welfare
The global climate crisis affects present-day social organisation in its entirety, and,
increasingly, people are coming to see that the roots of the problems are structural
rather than technical. To face the current problems and challenges, what is needed is a
critical analysis of the way society is organised and of predominant norms, so that the
interconnections between environmental problems and social values and ideals are
made visible. The basis of present-day welfare systems is access to cheap oil and
perpetual economic growth. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the
unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, this economic and social model must
be fundamentally changed. New ways of sustainably organising and financing human
welfare are a dire necessity.
Still today, a large part of the world’s population is mired in deep poverty. The
consumption levels of the rich part of the world are not globally sustainable – in a
finite world, the environmental space available for human beings is necessarily
limited. The connection between increasing material consumption and quality of life
has often been assumed to be linear, yet it is being increasingly questioned by greater
numbers of people.
The critical exploration of the complex intersections of these areas – environmental
destruction, the climate crisis, global inequality, and the organisation of social welfare
– constitutes one of Cogito’s central tasks.

8. NGOs and politics
• ideologically related
• one by one issues
• recrutiment
• democracy – free opinion

9. Examples from other Think tanks

10. Thanks!