The bulletin reviews leading global publications and highlights critical reassessments of prevailing concepts in politics, economics, environment, and technology.
TRENDS Research & Advisory has released the 48th edition of its monthly bulletin, Monitoring Global Knowledge Production, which analyzes emerging trends in academic and intellectual production. Titled Rethinking the Grand Assumptions, the study is part of TRENDS’ ongoing efforts to monitor major global intellectual and knowledge transformations.
Prepared by the TRENDS Virtual Office in Canada, the edition reviews a selection of the most prominent intellectual and academic publications released in 2026. These works share a common focus on revisiting established concepts and long-held assumptions in politics, philosophy, economics, environmental studies, and technology, reflecting a growing global tendency to reassess the traditional theoretical frameworks that have shaped understandings of many contemporary issues.
The edition explores intellectual shifts surrounding the concept of terrorism through a review of the book How to Think About Terrorism: Reflections on Philosophy, History, and Politics, which advocates a critical approach that moves beyond conventional interpretations of the phenomenon by linking it to complex historical, political, and intellectual contexts and examining its impact on societies and the international order.
The bulletin also reviews Environmental Marxism, which offers a new interpretation of the relationship between Marxist thought and environmental issues, presenting the climate crisis as a consequence of the structure of the global economic system and seeking to connect social justice with climate justice within a renewed critical intellectual framework.
The issue further examines The Age of Human Disappearance by French thinker Bruno Patino, which discusses the profound implications of the digital revolution and artificial intelligence for human cognition and social relations, warning of transformations that may ultimately redefine the very concept of humanity in the digital age.
In another section, the bulletin highlights Public Service or Barbarism. This work defends public services as a fundamental pillar of democracy and social justice while criticizing privatization and austerity policies and their impact on social cohesion in modern societies.
The issue also sheds light on Earth Society, which presents a new philosophical vision of the relationship between humanity and nature, calling for an expanded concept of society that encompasses the earth and all its components, and urging a rethinking of justice and politics from a comprehensive environmental perspective.
The bulletin emphasizes that, despite their diverse themes, these intellectual works reflect a global trend of knowledge aimed at reassessing dominant ideas and rebuilding analytical and conceptual tools to address the accelerating challenges facing the world in technology, the environment, politics, economics, and society.
This publication is part of a series of periodic bulletins issued by TRENDS to track the latest developments in global knowledge production and to provide researchers, decision-makers, and those interested in intellectual affairs with analytical insights that help anticipate future transformations and understand their evolving dynamics.
