Grassroots democracy and peoples’ alternative practices in Southeast Asia

by Eduardo C. Tadem Introduction1) Discourses on practices of grassroots democracy often focus on modes of popular participation centered on institutional avenues such as elections and local governance issues dealing with decentralization, devolution, and local autonomy (Mohanty 2007, 15–32). At the local level, consequent interests are on “restraining arbitrary and corrupt official behaviour and enhancing the accountability of grassroots authorities” […]

Nation-states are destroying the world. Could ‘bioregions’ be the answer?

From the border regions of South Asia to the Amazon rainforest, people are seeking new ways to organise societies that respect humans and nature By Shrishtee Bajpai, Juan Manuel Crespo & Ashish Kothari Panchi nadiya pawan ke jhonke Koi sarhad na inhe roke Sarhadein insaano ke liye hai Socho tumne aur maine kya paaya insaan hoke” (Translation) “Birds, rivers and […]

Between the ecological modernization of capitalism and the multi-crisis: how to build the eco-social transformation the world needs?

The Global Working Group Beyond Development[1] met in a moment of increasing visibility of the climate emergency, the ongoing disruption of our societies by the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing trade war between China and the United States and increasing impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the world´s richest keep growing richer, the legitimacy of political […]

Commenting on “Revolutionary Immanence?”

by Aram Ziai The article is a highly interesting piece which demonstrates the author‘s familiarity with the theoretical debate about anti-capitalist revolutions as well as with current oppositional social movements. However, coming from a different theoretical tradition than the author I found its argument sometimes hard to follow and was not quite convinced by a number of theoretical claims – […]

Revolutionary immanence? Exploring the political idea of social movements

by Soumitra Ghoshs Introduction: theories of movements, but where is the praxis? Murray Bookchin once commented that the tragedy of Marxism was that it had become a subject of cloistered academic seminars and not living movements (Bookchin 2015). Today’s anti-capitalist mobilisations do not call themselves Marxists, he observed. The recorded experiences of the various square movements, insurrections and revolutions of […]

Ecofeminism and a ‘Just Transition’

This interview follows a 2020 workshop on approaches to a ‘just transition’, held at the Institute for Global Development (IGD), University of New South Wales, Australia. Somali Cerise, IGD Research to Practice Associate asks Ariel Salleh to share ecofeminist ideas on redefining the relationship between humans and the environment and what a different system of power and economic relationships might […]

PARTICIPA EN NUESTRA PRÓXIMA PRESENTACIÓN DE LIBRO & DIÁLOGO

Ciudades Dignas— transformación urbana alrededor del mundo Registro: https://bit.ly/38S1lnJ La urbanización global mantiene relaciones constituyentes mutuas con los principales patrones de dominación en nuestras sociedades, dando forma a su desarrollo. Sin embargo, las ciudades son lugares de intensas disputas políticas a medida que las poblaciones urbanas se han organizado para hacer frente a los desafíos de la vida cotidiana, resistir […]

JOIN OUR UPCOMING BOOK PRESENTATION DIALOGUE

Cities of Dignity— Urban Transformations Around the World  To join Please register here: https://bit.ly/38S1lnJ Global urbanization maintains mutual constituent relationships with the main patterns of domination in our societies, shaping their development. However, cities are sites of intense political disputes as urban populations have organized to meet the challenges of everyday life, resist dispossession, and defend their rights. What conditions […]

Can social movements democratise democracy?

Lessons from the Yellow Vests movement in France by Maxime Combes “Extraordinary events are beyond the scope of ordinary explanations” Edgard Morin “Democracy is not about Saturday afternoons”, French president Emmanuel Macron said, speaking about the Yellow Vests movement (YVM) that have been protesting every Saturday afternoon since November 17, 2018. Such a statement aimed to close the door to […]

Enfrentando las deudas eternas desde el Sur

por Alberto Acosta , Esperanza Martinez , Miriam Lang La historia de la Modernidad tiene dos caras: por un lado, es una historia de revoluciones y luchas por los derechos. Pero, por orto lado, a la vez está plagada de violencias, de injusticias y de abusos. Muchos de los filósofos políticos ilustrados e incluso héroes de la Independencia eran esclavistas en su época. Las declaraciones […]

Remembering Elandria C. Williams

by Beyond Development collective With deep sadness, grief, and heavy hearts, we learn of the passing of our friend, sister, and colleague, Elandria Williams.  Their untimely departure created an immediate feeling of sorrow, emptiness, and profound loss. Those who knew Elandria as we knew them would remember how they carried with them the urgency of the moment. Elandria kept us […]

Re-imagining food

Do we have the stomach for it? by Ashish Kothari “Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live”, said Socrates. Wisdom, or a wisecrack? In a world in which a couple of billion people don’t have adequate nutritious food, while another billion or more fall ill due to overconsumption or a […]