The Ecology of Freedom

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
The Ecology of Freedom, his most exciting and far-reaching work yet. This engaging and extremely readable book's scope is downright breathtaking. Using an inspired synthesis of ecology, anthropology, philosophy and political theory, it traces our society's conflicting legacies of freedom and domination, from the first emergence of human culture to today's global capitalism. The theme of Bookchin's grand historical narrative is straightforward: environmental, economic and political devastation are born at the moment that human societies begin to organize themselves hierarchically. And, despite the nuance and detail of his arguments, the lesson to be learned is just as basic: our nightmare will continue until hierarchy is dissolved and human beings develop more sane, sustainable and egalitarian social structures. The Ecology of Freedom is indispensable reading for anyone who's tired of living in a world where everything, and everyone, is an exploitable resource. It includes a brand new preface by the author. Book jacket.

The Ecology of Freedom

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

The Philosophy of Social Ecology

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher: AK Press
ISBN: 1849354413
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 127

Book Description
What is nature? What is humanity's place in nature? And what is the relationship of society to the natural world? In an era of ecological breakdown, answering these questions has become of momentous importance for our everyday lives and for the future that we and other life-forms face. In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin confronts these questions head on: invoking the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever expanding freedom. Refreshingly polemical and deeply philosophical, they take issue with technocratic and mechanistic ways of understanding and relating to, and within, nature. More importantly, they develop a solid, historically and politically based ethical foundation for social ecology, the field that Bookchin himself created and that offers us hope in the midst of our climate catastrophe.

Affluence and Freedom

Author: Pierre Charbonnier
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509543732
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
In this pathbreaking book, Pierre Charbonnier opens up a new intellectual terrain: an environmental history of political ideas. His aim is not to locate the seeds of ecological thought in the history of political ideas as others have done, but rather to show that all political ideas, whether or not they endorse ecological ideals, are informed by a certain conception of our relationship to the Earth and to our environment. The fundamental political categories of modernity were founded on the idea that we could improve on nature, that we could exert a decisive victory over its excesses and claim unlimited access to earthly resources. In this way, modern thinkers imagined a political society of free individuals, equal and prosperous, alongside the development of industry geared towards progress and liberated from the Earth’s shackles. Yet this pact between democracy and growth has now been called into question by climate change and the environmental crisis. It is therefore our duty today to rethink political emancipation, bearing in mind that this can no longer draw on the prospect of infinite growth promised by industrial capitalism. Ecology must draw on the power harnessed by nineteenth-century socialism to respond to the massive impact of industrialization, but it must also rethink the imperative to offer protection to society by taking account of the solidarity of social groups and their conditions in a world transformed by climate change. This timely and original work of social and political theory will be of interest to a wide readership in politics, sociology, environmental studies and the social sciences and humanities generally.

Social Ecology and Communalism

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
A collection of essays by the late Murray Bookchin, the acclaimed writer and activist who spent most of his life working towards a better world. The basic premise of social ecology is to re-harmonise the balance between society and nature, to create a rational ecological society - aims that are increasingly vital and increasingly a part of the mainstream political discourse. This collection of essays give an overview and introduction to his ideas.

Liberty and the Ecological Crisis

Author: Katie Kish
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000765695
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
This book examines the concept of liberty in relation to civilization’s ability to live within ecological limits. Freedom, in all its renditions – choice, thought, action – has become inextricably linked to our understanding of what it means to be modern citizens. And yet, it is our relatively unbounded freedom that has resulted in so much ecological devastation. Liberty has piggy-backed on transformations in human–nature relationships that characterize the Anthropocene: increasing extraction of resources, industrialization, technological development, ecological destruction, and mass production linked to global consumerism. This volume provides a deeply critical examination of the concept of liberty as it relates to environmental politics and ethics in the long view. Contributions explore this entanglement of freedom and the ecological crisis, as well as investigate alternative modernities and more ecologically benign ways of living on Earth. The overarching framework for this collection is that liberty and agency need to be rethought before these strongly held ideals of our age are forced out. On a finite planet, our choices will become limited if we hope to survive the climatic transitions set in motion by uncontrolled consumption of resources and energy over the past 150 years. This volume suggests concrete political and philosophical approaches and governance strategies for learning how to flourish in new ways within the ecological constraints of the planet. Mapping out new ways forward for long-term ecological well-being, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of ecology, environmental ethics, politics, and sociology, and for the wider audience interested in the human–Earth relationship and global sustainability.

Social Ecology After Bookchin

Author: Andrew Light
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9781572303799
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Book Description
For close to four decades, Murray Bookchin's eco-anarchist theory of social ecology has inspired philosophers and activists working to link environmental concerns with the desire for a free and egalitarian society. New veins of social ecology are now emerging, both extending and challenging Bookchin's ideas. For this instructive book, Andrew Light has assembled leading theorists to contemplate the next steps in the development of social ecology. Topics covered include reassessing ecological ethics, combining social ecology and feminism, building decentralized communities, evaluating new technology, relating theory to activism, and improving social ecology through interaction with other left traditions.

Ecology or Catastrophe

Author: Janet Biehl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199342490
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Book Description
Murray Bookchin was not only one of the most significant and influential environmental philosophers of the twentieth century--he was also one of the most prescient. From industrial agriculture to nuclear radiation, Bookchin has been at the forefront of every major ecological issue since the very beginning, often proposing a solution before most people even recognized there was a problem. Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin is the first biography of this groundbreaking environmental and political thinker. Author Janet Biehl worked as his collaborator and copyeditor for 19 years, editing his every word. Thanks to her extensive personal history with Bookchin as well as her access to his papers and archival research, Ecology or Catastrophe offers unique insight into his personal and professional life. Founder of the social ecology movement, Bookchin first started raising environmental issues in 1952. He foresaw global warming in the 1960s and even then argued that we should look into renewable energy sources as an alternative to fossil fuels. Wary of pesticides and other chemicals used in industrial agriculture, he was also an early advocate of small-scale organic farming, which has developed into the present locavore movement and the revival of organic markets. Even Occupy can trace the origins of its leaderless structure and general assemblies to the nonhierarchical organizational form Bookchin developed as a libertarian socialist. Bookchin believed that social and ecological issues were deeply intertwined. Convinced that capitalism pushes businesses to maximize profits and ignore humanist concerns, he argued that eco-crises could be resolved by a new social arrangement. His solution was Communalism, a new form of libertarian socialism that he developed. An optimist and utopian, Bookchin believed in the potentiality for human beings to use reason to solve all social and ecological problems.

The Ecology of Freedom

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781904859260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Indispensable reading for anyone who is tired of living in a world where everything and everyone is an exploitable resource. Murray Bookchin uses an inspired synthesis of ecology, anthropology, philosophy and political theory to trace the human race's conflicting legacies of freedom and domination, from the emergence of human culture to today's global capitalism.

Remaking Society

Author: Murray Bookchin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780896083721
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Argues that the solution to today's global ecological crisis depends on decentralized democratic communities, ecologically safe technologies, organic agriculture, and humanly scaled industries