We live in exciting times of fundamental change in the political, social and economic relations within our borders and across the world. The pace and scope of scientific and technological advances, coming from international information and knowledge institutions in the form of innovations and inventions, enjoin us to redefine ourselves and our place in the world. The past and its presence in our lives are becoming a reality in our policies, strategies and development plans, as we draw lessons from history and reimagine ourselves in relation to one another and the rest of the world.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and Covid-19 are providing us with new challenges—they are radically changing the way we understand our own history in relation to the present and the future—our understanding of who we are and how we should relate to one another in a world characterised by differences. The convergence of 4IR and Covid-19 means we are witnessing the emergence of entirely new ways of designing policy frameworks for national and international relations. In both subtle and explicit ways, Covid-19 is also changing what it means to be human: contingencies of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, sexual orientation and so on, seem to have reached their limits.

Freedom Park is uniquely placed to synthesise the experiences of the past and their presence in our politics. The retrospective and introspective perspectives contained in this publication shed considerable light on the nature and scope of both current and emerging realities. They point to opportunities and constraints, and alert us to impending risks and radical uncertainty, while urging us to reconsider our traditional ways of “doing” politics, if we are to keep pace with the imperative of fundamental change.

New technologies are driving radical transformation in the way we conceptualise the politics of fundamental change. Reflections on social memory help us to put the changes in historical perspective. We have to make bold choices and develop innovative and flexible strategies that will benefit everyone in the world. As we do so, we have to take care to minimise risk and build a more secure world.