1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook on Ecosocialism
Building on the classical works that have propelled and shaped ecosocialist thinking and action and more recent political developments on the ground, the volume will provide a reference point for international work in the field, both directly political and academic.
The Handbook acquaints readers with the varied roots of and sometimes conflicting approaches to ecosocialism. It does not attempt any unification of ecosocialist currents. Rather, it aims to provide a resource that is as comprehensive as possible with respect not only to theorization and ideological framing, but also and especially to existing projects, practices, and movements and giving a sense of the geographical reach that ecosocialism so far represents. This includes scholarship that extends Marxist foundations and reflects on more recent political developments. The theoretical and practice-oriented moorings are buttressed by discussions on movements, frameworks, and prefigurative processes as well as on social struggles occurring within institutional settings. Together, the collection offers a reference point for international work in the field, in social movements, and in institutional transformations.
Providing detailed but accessible overviews of the complex, varied dimensions of ecosocialism, the Handbook is an essential up-to-date guide and reference not only for researchers, but also for undergraduate and graduate students in geography, environmental studies, development studies, sociology, and political science, as well as for policymakers and activists.
1. An Introduction to Ecosocialism
Leigh Brownhill, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Terran Giacomini, Ana Isla, Michael Löwy, and Terisa E. Turner
Part 1: Historical and theoretical groundings
2. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism: A Theoretical Introduction
James O’Connor
3. The Ecofeminist Ground of Ecosocialism
Joel Kovel
4. Ethnicized, Gendered Class Analysis: A Theoretical-Methodological Framework for Analyzing Ecofeminist, Ecosocialist Praxis
Terisa E. Turner
5. Ecofeminist Ecosocialism
Mary Mellor
6. An Ecocentric Epistemology for Ecosocialism
Ariel Salleh
7. ‘Greening:’ The Highest Stage of Extractivism in Latin America
Ana Isla
8. Romanticism, the Critique of Progress and Ecosocialism
Renán Vega Cantor
9. Dialectical Ecology
John Clark
Part 2: Extending Marxist Roots
10. Ecological and Economic Modalities of Time and Space
Elmar Altvater
11. The Ecology of Misogyny
Leigh Brownhill
12. From Marx to Ecosocialism
Michael Löwy
13. Marx’s Ecology and Metabolic Analysis
Brett Clark and John Bellamy Foster
14. The Legacy of Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism in the 21st Century
Kohei Saito
15. Ecosocialist Underpinnings of Ecological Civilisation
Arran Gare
Part 3: Movements, Prefiguration and Frameworks
16. Tragic Milestones of the Niger Delta
Nnimmo Bassey
17. Nakedness and Power [with an Introduction by the authors]
Seth Tobocman, Leigh Brownhill and Terisa E. Turner
18. Ecosocialist Activism and Movements in South Africa
Vishwas Satgar and Jacklyn Cock
19. Agroecology as Ecofeminist Activism
Terran Giacomini
20. “You Can Blow Your Brains Out and You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”: Jazz, Collectivism, and the Struggle for Ecological Commons in Louisiana’s Sugar Parishes
Benjamin Barson
21. Ecosocialism and Workplace Democracy
José Luis Haro García
22. People’s Resistance against Geoengineering
Silvia Ribeiro
23. Green Reforms and Individual Interventions in the Green New Deal Transition to Ecosocialism
Pritam Singh
24. Extinction Rebellion: Crisis, Inaction, and the Question of Civil Disobedience as Ecosocialist Strategy
Samuel Alexander and Peter D. Burdon
Part 4: Power Struggles on Institutional Terrains
25. Conceptualizing Democratic Ecosocialism: A Personal Journey
Hans A. Baer
26. Moneyfree Economies and Ecosocialism
Anitra Nelson
27. Ecosocialist Economics
Pat Devine
28. Solar Communism, Thermodynamics of Ecosocialism/Communism
David Schwartzman
29. Technological Development for Ecosocialism
Victor Wallis
30. Agroecology and Ecosocialist Policies in Venezuela
Miguel Angel Núñez
31. Ecosocialism and the Green New Deal
Natasha Heenan
32. Bioenergy and Ecosocialism
Nadia Singh
33. The Environmental Benefits of Socialist States
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro
34. Ecosocialism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
Huan Qingzhi
35. The Fourth International’s Contribution to Ecosocialism
Michael Löwy and Daniel Tanuroa
Biography
Leigh Brownhill is an ecofeminist scholar and writer, anti-racist abolitionist, long-time decolonial researcher, and community activist. She is Associate Editor of Capitalism Nature Socialism, the international, multi-disciplinary journal of ecosocialism. She teaches sociology at Athabasca University, Canada.
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro is Professor of Geography at SUNY New Paltz, and Chief Editor of Capitalism Nature Socialism. His research areas include socialist histories, soil contamination processes, and urban food production. His latest books are on socialist states and environment and on urban agriculture and ecosocialism.
Terran Giacomini is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. Her community-engaged scholarship explores the gendered and ethnicized class relations that support life-affirming resistance and alternatives to capitalism. She is an associate member of Canada’s National Farmers Union, and a founding member of the Via Campesina movement for food sovereignty and agroecology.
Ana Isla is Professor Emerita at Brock University in Canada. She is conducting research on subsistence economies in the Peruvian rainforest and extractivism in Latin America.
Michael Löwy completed two PhDs at the Sorbonne, in 1964 and 1974. He is recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal as the best French social scientist (1994) and the European Walter Benjamin Prize (2020). He co-authored, with Joel Kovel and Ian Angus, the Declaration of Belem (2009) at the Belem Social World Forum. He is a member of the steering committee of the Global Ecosocialist Network.
Terisa E. Turner is a revolutionary, ecofeminist Marxist trained and mentored by and in the tradition of CLR James. She worked at the UN and at nine universities. She writes on petroleum, gender, social movements, and commoning transitions.
“The Handbook on Ecosocialism is a much-needed anthology from among the most influential figures in the ecosocialist movements. Buttressed by powerful Marxist ecofeminist contributions, the Handbook is bound to become an essential resource for scholars and organisers keen on overcoming racial capitalist and patriarchal relations and to strengthen the process of commoning.”
Professor Emerita Silvia Federici, Hofstra University, USA
