Anitra Nelson

Published: Mar 25, 2019 by Capitalism Nature Socialism
Authors: Anitra Nelson
Subjects: Political Science, Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Art & Visual Culture

A review essay of Money: 5000 years of Debt and Power by Michel Aglietta, with Pepita Ould Ahmed and Jean-François Ponsot, Verso, 2018, and Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies against Financialization by Max Haven, Pluto, 2018, approach the concept and practice of money in distinctive ways, the first top-down, the second, bottom-up.

Published: Sep 12, 2018 by Capitalism Nature Socialism 27 (4): 40–60.
Authors: Anitra Nelson
Subjects: Economics, Finance, Business & Industry

Against popular logic that money is a neutral tool, a nonmarket ecosocialist position is offered. Marx indicated that post-capitalism went beyond money (exchange value). Money is a code of conduct reproducing inequity, competition, distrust and alienation. Capitalists and capitalism cannot exist without money. Fair non-monetary livelihoods critique capital and indicate alternative socialist forms. Contemporary anti-capitalists move beyond money and capitalism in ‘green materialism’.

Published: Sep 09, 2014 by Capitalism Nature Socialism 25(3), 111–116
Authors: Nelson, Anitra
Subjects: Environment and Sustainability

An obituary for Australian social and environmental activist, Frans Timmerman (1947–2014), co-editor of Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies.

Published: Oct 05, 2013 by Disability & Society 28(4), 471–85.
Authors: Nelson A, Berry M & Dalton T
Subjects: Built Environment, Sociology & Social Policy, Health and Social Care

This study of mortgage default in Australia revealed evidence of special difficulties for households coping with a member with a disability (an enduring illness, impediment or injury limiting everyday activities) whose strategies to address financial difficulties were fewer and less attractive than for other mortgagors. Australians have a strong home-ownership culture, an affordability crisis across tenures for low-income households, debated disability welfare services and housing policy gaps.

Published: Nov 09, 2012 by New Writing 9(3), 396–407
Authors: Nelson, Anitra and Cole, Catherine
Subjects: Education, Literature, Communication Studies

Referring to Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris (2011), the experiences of two Australian writers and the Australian Seven Writers’ community of practice, we investigate the significance of writers’ literary relationships in developing writing skills and work. Professional ‘communities of practice’ offer working environments with the potential to inform both creative writing learning and arts policy-making.

Published: Jun 11, 2007 by Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research Volume 13, Issue 2, 2007
Authors: Nelson, Anitra
Subjects: History, Anthropology - Soc Sci, Area Studies

Today I feel like the boy featured at the start of Crazy February: Death and Life in the Mayan Highlands of Mexico by US anthropologist Carter Wilson. My copy is the 1974 University of California paperback edition and falling apart. This boy is the perpetrator and victim of his own circumstance. He has a man, who we find out he has killed, strapped to his back and he is on a journey to a town where justice will be dealt. Why do I feel like this boy?

Published: Oct 09, 2004 by Australian Geographer 35(3), 301–15
Authors: Effective community engagement for sustainability: Wombat community forest management case study
Subjects: Geography , Environment and Sustainability

The first Australian government sponsored community‐based forest management project began in Central Victoria (2002). This analysis of the initial stage of the Wombat Community Forest Management Pilot Project develops and characterises the concept of an ‘effective community’ for structuring engagement in these kinds of natural resource management projects, offers advice for organising such engagement, and makes 12 recommendations for governments developing similar initiatives.

Published: Jun 09, 2004 by Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 11(2)
Authors: Nelson, Anitra
Subjects: Web, Environment and Agriculture

Online forums and geospatial planning support systems for community-based natural resource management are increasing. Interlocking regional intranet websites could address challenges of integrating catchment-wide objectives and strategies with grassroots Landcare activities. Such a network would facilitate sharing of ecological and social information, enhance communication between stakeholders and enable more genuine joint decision-making to support sustainable practices.

Published: May 09, 2004 by Journal of Spatial Science 49(1), 61–70.
Authors: Pettit CJ and Nelson A
Subjects: Information Science, Communication Studies, Environment and Sustainability

A framework for delivering on‐line resources to assist community participation and democratising of land management decision‐making is offered. Development of an interactive web-based public participatory planning support system for the first stage (May to Dec. 2002) of the Wombat Community Forest Management Pilot project, Victoria (Australia) is analysed. The site records activities undertaken and is a vehicle for group discussion and feedback, document exploration and interactive mapping.

Published: Sep 13, 2003 by Capitalism Nature Socialism 24 (3): 254-257
Authors: Nelson, Anitra
Subjects: Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Anthropology - Soc Sci

Review of David Graeber's book Debt: The First 5000 years

By: Anitra Nelson
Subjects: Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Environment and Agriculture , Environment and Sustainability, Health and Social Care, Other

Released at the very end of 2020, Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices follows along the lines of Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018) both in Routledge Environmental Humanities series. I co-edited both collections, the latest with Ferne Edwards, also an Australian, but based in Norway (NTNU).

Most of the contributors to these international collections are 'activist-scholars' with practical experience on the ground of growing and distributing food with degrowth criteria in mind. They offer both insightful critiques and reimagine forms of food for degrowth that can be applied in future.

To keep up with all the events and associated blog posts that we co-editors and contributors will contribute to in 2021, please refer to this page: https://anitranelson.info/food-for-degrowth/

By: Anitra Nelson
Subjects: Built Environment, Environment and Sustainability, Urban Planning

Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities

(Routledge Environmental Humanities series)

Co-editors present at introductory seminar to the EU Parliament Post-Growth 2018 Conference mid-September 2018.

Events in European tour of book available here: https://anitranelson.info/events/

Affordable housing, better urban planning for and by residents, and environmentally sustainable housing are in the headlines. Our new collection (released 3 August 2018) breaks new ground by applying interdisciplinary principles of ‘degrowth’ to policies and practices of housing and urban planning.

Degrowth is a political, practical and cultural movement for downscaling and transforming society beyond capitalist growth and non-capitalist productivism to achieve global sustainability and satisfy everyone’s basic needs.
Housing for Degrowth responds to key challenges in urban and environmental sustainability, and social justice, by adopting the lens of degrowth.

The book is co-edited by activist-scholars Anitra Nelson (Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia) and François Schneider (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona) who initiated Research & Degrowth, degrowth conferences and has established a degrowth residential project in Cerbère (South France).

Twenty-five contributors present a range of cases and models from various countries and continents — Italy, Norway, Vanuatu, India, Austria, Spain, England, Germany, USA, Sweden, Australia, Wales and Denmark.

A ‘narrative’ method frames interdisciplinary and disciplinary contributions from distinct cultures to show how housing for degrowth principles of sufficiency and conviviality — living a ‘one planet lifestyle’ with a common ecological footprint — apply in practice.

By: Anitra Nelson

Nicole Cook (University of Wollongong, Geography and Sustainable Communities) has favourably reviewed Sustainability Citizenship in Cities: Theory and Practice for Urban Policy and Research (2017) — http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2017.1313407