African, Asian and Latin American societies that have been pushed on the periphery of global capitalist development see capitalism as a dead end. One of the founders of the world systems analysis presents the only alternative in a frame of global history: the socialist orientation that should be followed as "devastation is threatening to partially detach from the world system, strengthen national independence, self-centre development giving priority to sustainable rural life and utilising experience from the first attempts in the Soviet and Chinese development.

The social geographer presents a historic retrospective on the alternative, green or community currencies in Hungary. Is it a nice fit to the Washington Consensus or a promise of a radical civic society or maybe the revival or earlier mutual help forms? How is this seen by participants, what can we learn from the experience?

The perestroika announced by Gorbachev and the – also opaque meaning – change by Obama although designed to solve problems of very different societies and economies but still have parallel features. Both can be associated with forced reforms: with an obvious result concerning perestroika but with hardly a beginning of Obama's change.

According to the article launching our new column the systemic change in Hungary made a historic turn-point changing the character of theatre life. It appeared as the object of aesthetics but also as an aspect of the structured complexity of theatre and society.