What is Transformative Realism? It is the recognition that in order to overcome the financial
euro climate democracy corona crises we need to transform our political economic social
and cultural order from head to toe. However a reality check shows that transformative
politics does not seem feasible. The challenge is not so much that there are no solutions to
our problems or that there are no actors willing to make a change. A realistic view of the
balance of societal forces shows that those who benefit from or believe that they benefit from
the status quo form a formidable bloc of resistance which no social movement social
entrepreneur or even nation state can break through by themselves. Transformative Realism means
that in order to transform the status quo all politics must be understood as rooted in the
balance of societal forces and must aim to shift this balance of power. So this book is less
about the crises crippling our societies nor the policy solutions to them. It is not about the
why and what of change but about the how.
