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Social Ecology and the Right to the City

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Social Ecology and the Right to the City SOCIOLOGY • ECOLOGY • URBAN STUDIES City the to Ecology Right Social the and “This book is urgently needed — it focuses our attention on the historic and crucial task of reconnecting humans and the natural world and powerfully explores how a movement for the ecological and social commons can tame the destructive forces of capitalism.” — Paul Chatterton, School of Geography, University of Leeds “The book features some of the very best of the current generation of writers and thinkers in the tradition of social ecology.” — Brian Tokar, author of Toward Climate Justice “The combination of theory and social movements scholarship within general de- bates on contemporary political and ecological crises make this book a timely and signifcant contribution.” — Sutapa Chattopadhyay, University of Windsor Cities are increasingly a major cause of, but also a potential solution for, environ- mental and social crises. Across the world, a new wave of urban social movements Venturini are arising: movements building economic, social, and political alternatives based on solidarity, equality, and participation. At the forefront of these, social ecology is emerging as a rich body of ideas spanning disciplines as diverse as democracy, eco- • nomics, and urbanism to technology, philosophy, and social development. De ğ This anthology develops the debates that began at the Transnational Institute of irmenci Social Ecology’s (TRISE) conference in Thessaloniki about the dire need to rebuild our cities. It discusses the prospects of current urban movements; examines the radical potential of the concept of “the Right to the City”; and looks at how activists, • scholars, and community movements can work together towards an ecological and Morales democratic future. A fruitful conversation between theory and practice, this book opens new ground for rethinking systemic urban change in a way that transforms how we live, work, and create together. • • 9 781551 646817 Montréal/Chicago/London Paperback: 978-1-55164-681-7 TT412 www.blackrosebooks.com Hardcover: 978-1-55164-683-1 eBook: 978-1-55164-685-5 “This book is urgently needed — it focuses our attention on the historic and crucial task of reconnecting humans and the natural world they are deeply in- terconnected with. The book powerfully explores how a movement for the ecological and social commons can tame the destructive forces of capitalism.” — PAUL CHATTERTON, Professor of Urban Futures, School of Geog- raphy, University of LeeDs “Henri Lefebvre’s ‘Right to the City’ is an important, but nevertheless limited, idea, as Lefebvre himself did not pay due attention to the ecological dimension of social emancipation. Social Ecology and the Right to the City is a welcome step in the right direction, as it provides that motto with a powerful framework: Murray Bookchin’s neo-anarchist approach to social ecology.” — MARCELO LOPES DE SOUZA, Professor of Environmental Geog- raphy anD Political Ecology, FeDeral University of Rio de Janeiro “This book constitutes an important contribution to the elaboration and articu- lation of the paradigm of social ecology. It could hardly be more timely, with the multiple, interconnected crises of capitalist modernity engulfing the world in ever-expanding, permanent war and ecological catastrophe. This volume provides abundant reason for hope that, as one of the chapters puts it, our ca- lamitous present is pregnant with a more sustainable, social-ecological future.” — THOMAS JEFFREY MILEY, University of CambriDge “With a majority of the world’s population now living in urban areas, the city has re-emerged as a definitive focus for popular struggles and contemporary social movements. This book brings us to the epicenter of today’s municipal movements, exploring the recent evolution of urban alternatives, together with theoretical perspectives on the changing character of urban space. The book features some of the very best of the current generation of writers and thinkers in the tradition of social ecology, mainly from Europe and the Middle East, to critique capitalist false solutions and rekindle the promise of an urban future rooted in the commons, a moral economy, and visions of a radically different future.” — BRIAN TOKAR, author of TowarD Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis anD Social Change “Not only is the book comprehensive but extremely useful for its interdiscipli- nary and global analyses. The combination of theory and social movements scholarship within general debates on contemporary political and ecological crises, due to the rise of hostile and narcissistic policies, make this book a timely and significant contribution.” — SUTAPA CHATTOPADHYAY, University of WinDsor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, anD Criminology Social Ecology and the Right to the City by Black Rose Books is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: The right to the city and social ecology : towards democratic and ecological cities / Federico Venturini, Emet Değirmenci, Inés Morales (editors) Names: Venturini, Federico, editor. | Değirmenci, Emet, editor. | Morales, Inés, 1976- editor. Description: Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190166010 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190166053 | ISBN 9781551646831 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781551646817 (softcover) | ISBN 9781551646855 (PDF) Subjects: LCSH: Sociology, Urban. | LCSH: Urban policy. | LCSH: Urban ecology (Sociology) | LCSH: City and town life. Classification: LCC HT151 .R54 2019 | DDC 307.76—dc23 C.P.35788 Succ. Léo-Pariseau Montréal, QC, H2X 0A4 Explore our books and subscribe to our newsletter: www.blackrosebooks.com Ordering Information USA/INTERNATIONAL CANADA UK/IRELAND University of Chicago Press University of Toronto Press Central Books Chicago Distribution Center 5201 Dufferin Street 50 Freshwater Road 11030 South Langley Avenue Toronto, ON Chadwell Heath, London Chicago, IL 60628 M3H 5T8 RM8 1RX (800) 621-2736 (USA) 1-800-565-9523 +44 (0) 20 8525 8800 (773) 702-7000 (International) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Cover art by James Mckay “A Dream of a Low Carbon Future” This publicationis published in collaboration with the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology Social Ecology and the Right to the City Tow ards Ecological and Dem ocratic C ities Edited by Federico Venturini, Emet Değ irmenci, Inés Morales Montréal/Chicago/London CONTENTS Introduction 1 Federico Venturini, Emet Değirmenci, and Inés Morales 1 About this Book 1 2 Getting Started: Understanding Ecological Disasters 1 and Inequality 3 Changing the World 3 4 The Role of the Activist-Researcher 5 5 Contributions to this Volume 6 6 Acknowledgements 9 7 8Part 1: Discovering Social Ecology 12 9The Legacy of Murray Bookchin 12 Brian Morris Introduction 12 The Modern Crisis 13 Social Ecology 16 Dialectical Naturalism and Ethics 21 The Politics of Libertarian Socialism 24 Social Ecology: A Philosophy for the Future 32 Dan Chodorkoff Theory and Practice 32 The Role of Education 33 Utopian Thinking 34 The Principles of Social Ecology 36 Opposition 40 Reconstruction 40 Politics 42 A Critique of The Limits to Growth from a Social Ecology 46 Perspective Emet Değirmenci A Green Growth Economy 47 The Right to the City and Space-Making 48 Commons for a “Steady-State Economy” 51 What Sorts of Growth do We Want? 53 Part 2: Engaging with the Right to the City 58 Is the Right to the City a Right or a Revolution? 58 Magali Fricaudet The Paradigm of the Urban Miracle, or How Global 58 Capitalism Has Reached Massive Consent Lefebvre and the Philosophy of Urban Revolution 60 The Emergence of the Right to the City as a Global 62 Claim for Socio-Spatial Justice Municipalities: At the Forefront of the Right to the 64 City? What if Urban Revolution Meant Permanent Insur- 67 rection? Moving beyond the Right to the City: Urban Commoning in 71 Greece Theodoros Karyotis The Right to the City 71 The Urban Commons 74 Urban Struggles in Greece 76 The Subject of Social Mobilisation 80 Reconceptualising Rights and Spatial Justice through Social 86 Ecology Federico Venturini Introduction: Critically Exploring the Right to the 86 City Critically Exploring Spatial Justice 88 A Convergence of Concepts 89 Reconceptualising Citizenship, Justice, and Freedom 91 Reconceptualising the Right to the City and Spatial 93 Justice Conclusion 96 Part 3: The Kurdish Answer: Democratic Confederalism 101 The Evolution of the Kurdish Paradigm 101 Havin Guneser with Eleanor Finley The Early Years (1970–1989) 101 Soul-Searching within the PKK (1990–2010) 103 Ocalan’s Abduction and Captivity (1999–) 105 The Present: Where Do the Answers Lie? 107 The Democratization of Cities in North Kurdistan 110 Ercan Ayboga and Egit Pale The History of Cities in North Kurdistan 110 Cities Under the Governance of the Kurdish Free- 112 dom Movement Challenges 115 Urban Warfare and the New Wave of Gentrification 116 Part 4: Transforming Social Theory 118 Do We Need a New Theory of the State? 118 Metin Guven The Current Transition of World Leadership 118 The Heritage of Domination 120 The Axial Age and Later Developments 122 China in the Twenty-First Century 124 The Strength of the Chinese State Model 125 A New State Theory for the Struggles to Come 126 Direct Democracy, Social Ecology, and Public Time 128 Alexandros Schismenos Aspects of the Global Crisis of Significations 129 The Problems
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