Social Ecology n 1: a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends. 2: a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society.
Social ecology advocates a reconstructive and transformative outlook on social and environmental issues, and promotes a directly democratic, confederal politics. As a body of ideas, social ecology envisions a moral economy that moves beyond scarcity and hierarchy, toward a world that reharmonizes human communities with the natural world, while celebrating diversity, creativity and freedom.
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Toward Climate Justice
Perspectives on the Climate Crisis & Social Change
By Brian Tokar
From Communalism Press, Porsgrunn, Norway
The emerging global movement for climate justice highlights the social justice and human rights dimensions of global climate disruptions, while challenging corporate-driven false solutions, and using creative direct action to press for real, systemic changes. Brian Tokar shows how the perspective of social ecology can point the way toward a radically ecological reconstruction of society, in contrast to the grim, apocalyptic visions that underlie much of today’s popular climate activism.
Hope Beneath Our Feet
Restoring Our Place in the Natural World
Edited by Martin Keogh
From North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, USA
Featuring essays by social ecologists Chaia Heller and Brian Tokar, along with contributions by Barbara Kingsolver, Frances Moore Lappé, Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Wendell Berry, and nearly 50 others.
Uses of a Whirlwind
Movement, Movements, and Contemporary
Radical Currents in the United States
Edited by the Team Colors Collective, including ISE alumnus Kevin Van Meter
From AK Press, Oakland, California, USA
With contributions from Brian Tokar, and allies such as Ashanti Alston, Andrej Grubacic, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, and Chris Carlsson.
The Anti-Jewish Riots in Oslo
By Eirik Eiglad
From Communalism Press, Porsgrunn, Norway
In January 2009, massive protests in Oslo against the war in Gaza degenerated into the most violent riots Norway had seen for three decades; to many observers the riots mirrored age-old patterns of anti-Semitic hatred. This book is a personal narrative of the events, as told by a Norwegian anti-fascist and social ecologist.
La Tierra Viva (The Living Earth)
Manual de Agricultura Ecológica
By ISE alumnus Nelson Alvarez Febles
From the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico)
Greatly expanded from the original 1994 edition, this new edition offers a broad vision of agro-ecological sustainability, and provides the reader with the tools needed to produce food using environmentally friendly practices. The book includes sections on urban plantings, tropical beekeeping, organic fruit trees, marketing of organic products, and includes several appendices and indexes that make it a real handbook on organic farming.
Released last year:
Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future
by Matt Hern
From AK Press
Coming soon:
Agriculture and Food in Crisis: Conflict, Resistance, and Renewal
Co-edited by Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar
From Monthly Review Press
Post-Industrial Peasants
By Chaia Heller
From Duke University Press
Watch this space for publication information.
The Institute for Social Ecology is participating in 4 sessions at the upcoming US Social Forum. Please join us!
False Solutions and Real Solutions to Climate Change
Thurs. Jun 24 2010 – 1-5 pm Cobo Hall: D3-22
Co-sponsored with the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities
From Climate Crisis to Collective Commons: Renewable Energy from Below
Fri. Jun 25 2010 – 1-3 pm WSU Old Main: O134
Capitalist Roots of the Ecological Crisis
Weds. Jun 23 2010 – 1:00pm WSU Manoogian: 112
Panel with Brian Tokar, Joel Kovel, Terisa Turner, Chris Williams
Ecotopia or capitalist ecocide?
Fri. June 25 2010 – 3:30 pm UAW-Chrysler Building: 1
With Richard Greeman, Victor Wallis, Brian Tokar, and others