Michael Chèze
Towards a better future
Mapping the forces of planetary change
ESSAYS AND WRITING
This page brings together my writing exploring the systemic forces shaping ecological, economic, and social outcomes.
It includes a small number of longer-form and published essays in which these ideas are developed in depth, alongside an ongoing body of writing that engages the same questions more iteratively — through shorter essays, reflections, and thematic explorations.
Together, these two strands reflect a single body of thought: one oriented toward durable synthesis, the other toward ongoing inquiry.
Long-form essay
Long-form essay
The Four Drivers of Planetary Change
A long-form essay that develops a systemic framework for understanding ecological overshoot, biodiversity loss, rising inequality, and declining human wellbeing, tracing four underlying drivers and the historical dynamics through which they reinforce one another.
42 pages ・PDF
Published articles
Club of Rome | The Fifth Element
How artistic thinking can heal a mechanistic world
An essay exploring the limits of mechanistic ways of seeing and the possibilities opened by artistic modes of thought. The piece contrasts control, optimisation, and domination with attentiveness, relationship, and participation, arguing that how we perceive the world ultimately shapes how we design our societies, economies, and technologies.
Ongoing writing
Alongside these longer and more considered pieces, I maintain an ongoing writing practice — a space for shorter essays, reflections, and thematic explorations that engage the same questions from different angles.