Democracy – Page 2 – Radical Ecological Democracy

Decolonial feminism and Buen Vivir

September 3, 2020April 13, 2022 Democracy, Ecology, Gender, New Economy, New Politics, Social Change, Social Movements

The idea and practice of Buen Vivir have gained popularity all over South America because of its far-reaching socio-political acuity and penetration. Thinkers and practitioners of “alternatives” have analyzed Buen Vivir’s efficacy in dealing with various societal challenges – gender relations being a significant subject for that interrogation. Dennis Avilés Irahola provides an insight into how decolonial feminists are assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the process of implementation of the principles of Buen Vivir taking the Constituent Assemblies of Bolivia and Ecuador as examples, and how it could be sharpened to create an “alternative” paradigm in the continent without delaying action on women’s demands.

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Looking beyond the pandemic: Agroecology, and the need to rethink our food system

August 10, 2020April 13, 2022 Agriculture, Capitalism, Community Rights, Democracy, Ecology, Environment, Farming, New Economy

The on-going pandemic has laid bare the inequalities inherent in the neoliberal economy. As jobs and livelihoods of the struggling majority get severely impacted all over the world, access to food has become a critical issue for people. In this in-depth analysis of the global food system, Helena Paul underlines the growing need for reshaping our food infrastructure around agroecology, a new paradigm where producers and consumers are connected with each other, and in harmony with land and nature.

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Saving a critical pastureland in Montenegro

July 18, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Environment, Neoliberalism, Power Dynamic

In September 2019, the government of Montenegro converted a huge pastureland within a proposed Regional Nature Park into a military training ground against the opposition of the local people. Traditionally, pastoralists from the surrounding areas have used this area in the Sinjajevina Mountains as the summer grazing ground for their flocks. The decision was made with no publicly available environmental, health, or economic impact evaluations, and without any substantial negotiations with the affected communities, as well as in contravention of national and international laws. Pablo Domínguez, Maja Kostić-Mandić and Milan Sekulović tell us the story of a resistance movement, which is challenging rabid nationalist discourses, incipient neoliberalism and the entrenched ethno-politics of the Balkans to save a critical ecological area from disaster in Montenegro.

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Salween Peace Park – A place for all living things

May 31, 2020April 13, 2022 Community, Conservation, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Environment, New Politics, Power Dynamic

Situated in the crucial Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, the ancestral land of the Karen people of Myanmar is threatened by mining, mega-dams, logging and myriad other infrastructural development projects. In this fourth case study in the on-going solidarity series between REDWEb and the global “Yes to Life, No to Mining” (YLNM) network, the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) takes us to the “Salween Peace Park” where a successful initiative is charting a path away from destructive development.

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In Defence of Life: Cajamarca, Colombia

February 18, 2020April 13, 2022 Agriculture, Capitalism, Climate Change, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Environment, Politics, Power Dynamic

Deep in the embrace of the Colombian Andes Mountains, farmers, youth and other environmental defenders from Cajamarca have stopped a vast gold mine, re-valued the ‘true treasures’ in their territory and begun to develop regenerative alternatives to mining ‘development’. Mariana Gomez Soto and Benjamin Hitchcock Auciello explore this story of resistance and revival. This is the second case study in the on-going collaborative series between REDWeb and the global “Yes to Life, No to Mining” (YLNM) solidarity network.

Agenda Analysis Ideas Stories

Rethinking “Social Transformation”: Understanding the Communitarian Revolutionary Actor

January 29, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Democracy, Development, New Politics, Power Dynamic

As the need to counter the neoliberal assault on the planet is felt around the world, the idea of social transformation is undergoing fresh scrutiny to make it relevant to contemporary challenges. David Barkin and Alejandra Sanchez explore the unfolding socio-political experiments taking place in Latin America to give us an insight into the “Communitarian Revolutionary Actor” ushering in change on the continent.

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REDWeb Conversations Series – Cultivating autonomy in Rojava

December 15, 2019April 13, 2022 Community, Democracy, Environment, New Politics, Power Dynamic

Rojava is a significant experiment in grass-roots democracy in a region mired in desperate political conflict. The socio-political and economic achievements made over the last few years in Rojava form an aspirational inflection point in the history of the Kurdish people as well as that of West Asia. Ashish Kothari speaks with Yasin Duman on how the Autonomous Administration in Rojava became an agent of change while establishing stability in northern Syria.

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Resistance Is Fertile – The Emerging Alternative Political Discourse in the Indian Parliamentary Elections

May 19, 2019April 13, 2022 Community, Democracy, New Politics, Power Dynamic

India is in the midst of a massive election campaign for the constitution of its 17th parliament since independence in 1947. While the electoral priorities of the mainstream parties are characterized by a false narrative of “development”, a rapidly growing civil society initiative is exploring an alternative political discourse which is underlined by socio-economic equality and ecological sustainability. Shrishtee Bajpai describes the intellectual and operative underpinnings of this initiative.

Conversations Stories

RED Conversations Series – A Unique Initiative In Central India

March 25, 2019April 13, 2022 Community, Conservation, Democracy

ACKnowl-EJ (www.acknowlej.org) is a network of scholars and activists engaged in action and collaborative research that aims to analyze the transformative potential of community responses to extractivism and alternatives born from resistance. The project aims to co-produce knowledge that can empower communities to push for change and geared towards the needs of social groups, advocates and social movements. It is doing this through partners in several countries, who are conducting in-depth case studies, contributing to the Environmental Justice Atlas (www.ejatlas.org), and producing collaborative reports and theoretical pieces based on this work. Its co-ordinators are the Environmental Science and Technology Institute at Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), and Kalpavriksh (Pune, India).

The ACKnowl-EJ partners met recently at Deer Park, Bir, Himachal Pradesh (India), to review the work done so far, and plan the final phase of the project (due to end in April 2019). In this first interview for REDWeb Ashish Kothari interviews Govind Hodi, Kumari Tai Jamkata, Izam Sai Katengey and Shubhada Deshmukh from Korchi, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, India. They are a group of activists involved with a unique initiative called the “Maha Gramsabha”, or the “Federation Of Village Assemblies”.

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In Search Of A Grown-up Economy

March 12, 2019April 13, 2022 Democracy, Development, Ecology, New Economy, Sustainability

Is it possible to create an alternative to the corporatized conception of a good life? How do we challenge the stranglehold of endless growth on our economic system? Katherine Trebeck and Jeremy Williams critically examine the orthodoxy of development in this article and introduce us to the exciting idea of “economic arrival”, which advocates for shared wellbeing on a healthy planet.

Analysis Ideas Stories

Engaging Communities in Resource Monitoring: The Political Ecology of Science as the Language of Power

October 25, 2018April 13, 2022 Community, Democracy, Ecology, Education

How does the dominant politics of knowledge and power work in the context of conservation? Are certain forms of knowledge such as modern science privileged over indigenous knowhow? Kartik Shanker and Meera Anna Oommen discuss how their organization, Dakshin Foundation has forged an effective model of conservation by integrating local languages and traditions into its work in Lakshadweep, an island off the south-western coast of India.

Analysis Conversations Ideas Stories

RED Conversations Series – The Emerging Idea of “Radical Well-Being”

October 2, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate, Community, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Environment, New Politics

Paul Robbins talks with Ashish Kothari about the idea of “Radical Well-Being” and the road towards realizing it. This conversation is based on a presentation made by Ashish at the 2nd Biennial Conference of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) held in Oslo, June 2018.

Agenda Analysis Ideas Stories

REDWeb Anniversary Series – “From Socialism to Eco-socialism – Turning Points On a Personal Journey Through The Marxist Theory of Socialism”

September 14, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Democracy, Development, Ecology, New Politics, Power Dynamic

REDWeb completes its first year in September, and Saral Sarkar launches our anniversary initiative to understand and assess the work of Karl Marx in the context of the search for transformative alternatives. Sarkar uses his considerable experience as an analyst and an activist to help us fathom the immense integrity of Marx’s work as well as its imperfections. In this world ravaged and battered by ecological crises and economic peril for the vast majority of people, could eco-socialism be that viable path towards meaningful transformation that Marx had imagined and parsed for us?

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Reflections on the Founding of the First Ecosocialist International

September 5, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Democracy, Ecology, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle, Society

The search for transformative alternatives to the current miasma of neoliberalism is very much on. Ecosocialism is one such idea finding resonance in many parts of the world. Quincy Saul recounts the thinking and the efforts behind the founding of the First Ecosocialist International.

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Mapping Grassroots Solutions: Lessons learned from the Utah Resilience Map Project

August 2, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Democracy, Development, Environment, New Politics, Power Dynamic

As grassroots solutions to the current neoliberal orthodoxy emerge all around us, it is important to figure out a way to make them physically accessible for people. Emily Nicolosi writes about the Utah Resilience Map, a path breaking effort putting alternatives emerging in and around Salt Lake City on a map. It’s a bold initiative which challenges the stranglehold of corporate online mapping and an emerging template for replication at other places.

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Lessons from the Kickapoo: Radical Conviviality in Community Conservation

July 30, 2018April 13, 2022 Community, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Environment, New Politics, Sustainability

The Kickapoo River valley in Wisconsin, USA was condemned to reckless “development” in the 1970s as a mega-dam flood control project got underway. But that move was met with resistance from the Ho-Chunk people who consider the area their sacred homeland. Paul Robbins and Marcy West recount the powerful story of a community led and focused ecological revival of the Kickapoo valley, underscoring the triumph of negotiations and collaboration over mistrust and fear.

Agenda Analysis Ideas Stories

RED Conversations Series – “Alternative Futures: India Unshackled”

July 14, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Conservation, Cooperatives, Democracy, Development, Ecology, Energy, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic

Ashish Kothari was recently on a book tour in the U.S., promoting “Alternative Futures: India Unshackled”, a book he recently co-edited with K.J. Joy. Here, he discusses the main themes of the book with Pallav Das and an audience at “Busboys and Poets”, an activist book-store in Washington D.C.

Conversations Ideas Stories

RED Conversations Series

May 3, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Cooperatives, Democracy, Development, Innovation, New Economy

Ashish Kothari interviews Joel Morist I Botines of Cooperativa Integral Catalana to understand the new thrust of the cooperative movement in Catalonia and how it can be an accessible template for the rest of the world.

Analysis Ideas Stories

The Green Party of Germany – From Beacon of Hope to a Bog-standard Party

April 19, 2018April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate, Community, Conservation, Democracy, Ecology, Environment

How do we think about alternative politics in light of the current stresses on the environment and the phenomenal increase in inequality, worldwide? Probably, the best place to start is to learn from similar experiments which took place in recent history. Saral Sarkar helps us understand the intellectual debate on the economy, ecology and social relations that took place within “green” politics in Germany, and its ramifications for the contemporary search for alternatives.