‘The fact that the world has the highest number of “educated” people in its history and yet is the nearest to ecological [and systems] breakdown is a stark reminder that ‘more of the same…will only compound our problems’’ (The Commons World Collective 2020: 2 citing Orr, 2011: 238). In a time fraught with forecasts of global existential uncertainties, calls for change are building in economic, social, educational, ethical, political and environmental domains, in concert with observations that business as usual is no longer an option. Transformative change, however, is always contested and the nature of today’s impacting concerns is generating novel tensions between the local and the global, changing power structures and causing political identities to become polarised and entrenched. This Roundtable explores the role anthropology plays in exploring and understanding the current calls for dramatic transformations at the global level and in stimulating appropriate solutions. It does so by drawing inspiration from post-capitalist, post-growth and post-development manifestos, by looking at the impact of bottom-up initiatives that challenge national boundaries or the state, and by examining top-down international drives that champion globalized routes out of humanity’s current predicaments. Speakers will critically reflect on the transformations that are or are not yet taking place, and propose better ways to deal with today’s challenges.