Economics & Capitalism

Ursula LeGuin on Murray Bookchin

"Capitalism’s grow-or-die imperative stands radically at odds with ecology’s imperative of interdependence and limit. The two imperatives can no longer coexist with each other; nor can any society founded on the myth that they can be reconciled hope to survive. Either we will establish an ecological society or society will go under for everyone, irrespective of his or her status."

New collection of Murray Bookchin’s political essays

From Athens to New York, recent mass movements around the world have challenged austerity and authoritarianism with expressions of real democracy. For more than forty years, Murray Bookchin developed these democratic aspirations into a new left politics, influencing political thinkers and social movements alike.

Limits to Growth: Are we there yet?

From ISE Associate Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero:

In the last few weeks a public debate has flared up between Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman and environmentalist Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute. Heinberg insists that reverting global warming and overall environmental degradation is impossible without stopping economic growth. Krugman dismissed his arguments in a September 18 op-ed (1). Heinberg responded with an article titled “Paul Krugman and the limits of hubris” (2).

The debate over ecology vs. economic growth is not new. In 1972 a team of Massachusetts Institute of [...]

Dan Chodorkoff appeals to architects in Denmark (Video)

In September Dan Chodorkoff keynoted a conference on Education for Sustainability at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Aarhus, Denmark.  He was the only non-architect on the program. Here is a recording of his presentation, Sustainability, Education, and Utopia, accompanied, in part, by a slide show. Dan begins speaking around 8:20, and the slides begin at 42:45. (The camera appears to focus on the screen whether or not it is in use.)

Other presentations at the conference are available at http://vimeo.com/album/3099138. Starting from that page, Dan’s presentation is in the [...]

“Voices of Hope” conference in NYC

The ISE is a cosponsor of Voices of Hope in a Time of Crisis, coming up on November 8th at Cooper Union in NYC. This event will help launch the International Alliance for Localization, a new forum for global collaboration to support place-based solutions on a planetary scale.

The organizers say on their website:
In our film, The Economics of Happiness, we documented how the global economy is destroying ecosystems, cultures and any prospect of financial security. The economy also deeply affects our personal wellbeing, with rates of depression, alienation, [...]

Leading British filmmaker on Bookchin & the Kurds

The influential documentarian Adam Curtis has posted an excellent, detailed blog post at the BBC on the connection between Murray Bookchin and Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). This piece is more explicit about Bookchin’s specific contributions than most of the earlier articles.  The post also features several short film clips of  key figures from the 1960s discussing the topic of utopia and anti-utopia, including Lewis Mumford challenging the ’60s conterculture for nominally favoring escapism over true autonomy. Here’s an excerpt from Curtis’ post:
[T]he moment you [...]

Scarcity, post-scarcity and community after the Italian earthquake

Our good friend and past ISE intensive participant Federico Venturini writes from the University of Leeds in England, where he’s finishing his dissertation on revolutionary social movements in Rio de Janeiro.  You can follow Fede’s blog at http://rioprarua.noblogs.org; which also features some photos from the recent Ecological Challenges conference in Oslo:
I am very pleased to inform that the paper Scarcity, post-scarcity and local community: L’Aquila as a case study that I co-authored with Ersilia Verlinghieri has been published on Planum, the Journal of Urbanism in a special issue in [...]

New Murray Bookchin collection in French

From our colleague Vincent Gerber in Geneva:
October 16th will be the publication date for our book “Murray Bookchin, une écologie sociale et radicale,” in the series titled Precursors of Degrowth, produced by Serge Latouche. For more information, see my posting here.
This project comes up after the publication of my earlier book on Bookchin and social ecology, and Floreal Romero and I worked together on this. The aim of this small book is to present how ideas of social ecology influence (or are similar to) the recent Degrowth [...]

Left Green Perspectives [Complete back issue list]

[Note: Left Green Perspectives was published regularly between 1986 and early 1999, with an additional issue in January 2000. The prices listed with each issue represent the cover price at the time of publication; print editions are no longer available.]

Issue #1 (January 1986) $.50: “The Greening of Politics: Toward a New Kind of Political Practice,” by Murray Bookchin; “Radical Ecologist Fundis vs. Reformist Realos in the German Green Party,” by Howard HawkinsIssue #2 (February 1986) $.50:”Municipalization: Community Ownership of the Economy,” by Murray Bookchin Issue #3 (June 1986) $.75: [...]

Green Perspectives: Missing Issues

Thanks to Vincent Gerber in Geneva, we now have copies of several of the issues of Green Perspectives and Left Green Perspectives that were previously missing from this site as well as from other online sources. Click on Read More for live download links to issues # 9, 11, 12, 13, and 39, as well as links to issues available at academia.edu and other websites.