New Economy – Page 2 – Radical Ecological Democracy

More powerful together – Alternatives as Resistance (Part 2)

December 28, 2020September 8, 2023 2862 Views 0 Comments Capitalism, Community Rights, Conservation, Ecological democracy, Ecology, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Sustainability

The contemporary resistance to neoliberalism is searching for ways in which it can raise up the values and relations it is fighting for. It is also looking for low-carbon, ecologically sensible, culturally grounded alternatives, which would help stop the destruction of the planet. In this second part of her series, “More Powerful Together – Alternatives as Resistance”, Jen Gobby describes how movements in Canada are challenging the stale idea of making our existing systems work better. Instead, they are offering new societal alternatives by forging resistance to colonialism and resurgence of Indigenous economies, governance structures and ways of life.

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An economy that works for everyone

November 30, 2020April 13, 2022 3606 Views 3 Comments Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Cooperatives, Degrowth, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic

Why does the current economic system continue to fail the vast majority of people all over the world despite the ostensible strength of the structures put in place to look after their welfare? How is it that while ecological turmoil and economic inequality continue to fester, the solutions provided by the ruling elite are always ineffective and mostly dubious? In this final part of the series on the “Shared Society”, Clem McCartney examines how the economy could be made to respond constructively to poverty, alienation and anomie affecting the world, and how people can proactively impact the process by which the economy is managed for the benefit of the majority, and ensure the survival of the planet rather than its annihilation.

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Migration and the shared planet

October 18, 2020April 13, 2022 3076 Views 1 Comment Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Development, Environment, New Economy, New Politics

Migration has been a constant factor shaping human history. People have moved from one geographic area to another for ages, sometimes out of choice, but far too often fleeing threats to personal safety and physical survival. In our times, immigration has become a point of tension in international politics as well as a significant cause of rising socio-political discord within countries. In this second part of our series on “Shared Societies”, Clem McCartney describes a path away from the fear, alienation, desperation and misery, which have marked the issue of migration. The article imagines a place where new solutions could be crafted and executed in an efficient and humane manner, more in consonance with our shared humanity than the malign cycles that our society has been caught up in.

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Decolonial feminism and Buen Vivir

September 3, 2020April 13, 2022 7338 Views 1 Comment 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, 2020September 8, 2023 5834 Views 2 Comments 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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Relocalization in the time of Coronavirus: Building Sustainable Social and Economic Systems

April 10, 2020April 13, 2022 4471 Views 1 Comment Capitalism, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Sustainability

As Coronavirus upends the international economic system, it is imperative that the world community creates alternatives which could begin to replace this iniquitous and volatile system with those which are ecologically sustainable and nurturing of the human spirit. Christophe Aguiton, Genevieve Azam, Maxime Combes, Thomas Coutrot and Jean Gadrey describe how “relocalization” could contribute to the crafting of such alternatives.

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Thinking Outside the Grid

December 10, 2019April 13, 2022 2767 Views 0 Comments Community, Conservation, Energy, New Economy, New Politics

As the enormity of the contemporary environmental and climate crises dawns on the larger society, the power elite has not shied away from offering grand even if brazenly dubious answers to these challenges – Green Growth, Clean Coal, Genetically Engineered Biofuels and myriad other mirages. Steven Gorelick lifts the lid on the pseudo solutions to our severe energy issues and points us in the direction of systemic change based on local solutions to the complex undertakings of energy production and distribution.

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REDWeb Conversations Series – Defining A Utopian Present In Christiania, Copenhagen.

September 23, 2019April 13, 2022 3728 Views 3 Comments Ecology, Environment, New Economy, Politics, Resistance

What started as a politicized form of squatting in an abandoned military base has turned into a unique experiment in utopian thought and practice in Christiania, an autonomous neighborhood in Copenhagen. Ashish Kothari and Shrishtee Bajpai speak with Natasha Verco, a resident and activist about the promise and challenges of Christiania.

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21st century is the century of Women‘s Revolution!

September 2, 2019April 13, 2022 4568 Views 1 Comment Ecological democracy, New Economy, New Politics

Recently, Kalpavriksh’s Ashish Kothari and Shrishtee Bajpai attended a gathering of international activists, “Defend The Sacred”, at Tamera, Portugal. It was attended by activists and pioneers working for global system change all over the world. Here, we reproduce a statement which was read out by Besime Konca of the Kurdish Women’s Movement at the gathering. It recounts the dynamic and far reaching revolutionary thinking, activism and policy implementation taking place in the Kurdish regions. We also carry a link to the interview that Ashish and Shrishtee conducted with Besime Konca.

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RED Conversations Series – Housing is a human right

June 26, 2019April 13, 2022 3029 Views 1 Comment Degrowth, Environment, New Economy, Sustainability

The housing market is one of the important pillars of the contemporary free-market economy. It has also proven to be its achilles heel, as was evident during the market collapse of 2008, which was triggered by the bursting of the real-estate bubble. The modern housing scenario is marked by rampant household indebtedness, rapacious land-grabbing and corrupt real-estate developments. Given the resource intensive nature of the contemporary structures it is not surprising that buildings today contribute around 30 percent of carbon emissions, globally. How do we tackle this mammoth problem that could turn into a socio-economic catastrophe at any time? Ashish Kothari discusses this critical issue with Anitra Nelson and Fracois Schneider, the editors of “Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities”, which looks for feasible alternatives to the current housing mess.

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In Search Of A Grown-up Economy

March 12, 2019April 13, 2022 4277 Views 4 Comments 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.

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RED Conversations Series – A Meaningful Journey

October 21, 2018April 13, 2022 2787 Views 0 Comments Development, Innovation, New Economy, New Politics, Revolutionary Struggle, Sustainability

Ashish Kothari speaks with Elandria Williams and Mabrouka Mbarek about a unique journey of explorations and discovery they undertook in three cities of the United States to understand the nature of socio-economic struggle being waged by the Black communities and the political awakening it has resulted in.

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Small and Shared vs McMansions and Slums

August 3, 2018April 13, 2022 6960 Views 0 Comments Capitalism, Community, Cooperatives, Environment, Innovation, New Economy, Sustainability

Contemporary urban housing has become an economic and environmental mess, a festering problem forever dodging solutions. Anitra Nelson explores the way out of the crisis and discusses the role cohousing could play in rejuvenating the urban space.

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RED Conversations Series – “Alternative Futures: India Unshackled”

July 14, 2018April 13, 2022 3685 Views 2 Comments 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.

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Engaging with the Plutocene

May 14, 2018September 8, 2023 5418 Views 0 Comments Capitalism, Development, Ecology, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Policy, Sustainability

The neoliberal dispensation governing the world is pushing it towards an ecological catastrophe while ensuring the economic and political supremacy of an entrenched elite class. Using an income-based class perspective, Marko Ulvilla and Kristoffer Wilen discuss the ways in which we could create ecologically sustainable and socially equitable post-growth societies.

Conversations Ideas Stories

RED Conversations Series

May 14, 2018April 13, 2022 3424 Views 3 Comments Community, Innovation, New Economy

Ruth Mwangi explains the novel idea of community currencies to Ashish Kothari, and how it is creating viable economic options for low-income residents of informal settlements in the urban areas of Kenya.

Conversations Ideas Stories

RED Conversations Series

May 3, 2018April 13, 2022 3319 Views 1 Comment 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.

Conversations Stories

RED Conversations Series

April 4, 2018April 13, 2022 4188 Views 1 Comment Capitalism, Cooperatives, Democracy, Development, Environment, New Economy, New Politics

Ashish Kothari interviews Enric Duran for REDWeb. Enric is an activist challenging the power of monopolist banks and the founder of Faircoop, an open global cooperative.

Analysis

Is There A Way Out?

September 27, 2017December 21, 2017 4554 Views 0 Comments Capitalism, Climate Change, Colonialism, Development, Environment, Innovation, Nature, New Economy, Policy, Politics, Power Dynamic, Society

There’s much that makes us feel despondent in the contemporary world – climate change, economic inequality, social discord and a sense of intense personal ennui. How do we move towards solutions which restore sanity to our existence and connect us to others in our communities and to nature? Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das explain the idea, conviction and commitment behind an attempt at documenting some of the serious efforts being made in that direction.

Analysis

A Path To Freedom

September 27, 2017September 8, 2023 5498 Views 4 Comments Community, Cooperatives, Democracy, Development, Innovation, New Economy, Policy, Revolutionary Struggle, Social, Sustainability

Gustavo Esteva narrates his encounter with “development” and how that has shaped his understanding of the need for crafting new alternatives to free market fundamentalism.