Ours is the era of the anthropocene; the age in which the human factor is, it is agreed, probably more determining in almost everything than it has ever been. The very first question that this raises is how to understand this era, and finding answers to that question requires the full mobilization of the humanities and social sciences. It also calls for a repositioning of the disciplines in order to make them speak to each other in ways that could make multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity truly meaningful. Another question that arises is that of how to build a new ‘civilization’, which, after all, is what ‘development’ according to one of the founders of CODESRIA, Professor Samir Amin, should be about. The new civilization will be ecological and characterized by all the good things that make our societies, economies and governance systems, and our world more inclusive, just, and accommodating; in short: democratic and ‘developing’. It would certainly not be ‘dreamland’ or nirvana, but one where the ‘good life’ for the individual and collective would not seem totally unrealizable. Read the Full Editorial