Politics: Books, Reports & Newsletters

PostedonApr. 27, 2014in Politics

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Resources for Politics: Books, Reports & Newsletters

Books

  1. Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction by Bhikhu Parekh. The author concentrates on Gandhi’s role as a thinker, and the influence of his ideas — in particular his spiritual view of politics, and his theories of oppression, non-violent action, and active citizenship. (checked on 4 Nov. 2019)
  2. The Politics of Permaculture by Terry Leahy explores the political significance and latent potential of permaculture. (checked on 31 Aug. 2021)
  3. People’s Manifesto brought out by the Vikalp Sangam Process.
  4. The RTI Story: Power to the People by Aruna Roy with the MKSS collective, this book (published by Roli Books) is for everyone who asks questions, seeks answers to fight corruption and injustice and challenges arbitrary power. (checked on 27 Jun. 2018)

  5. Feminist Political Ecology and the Economics of Care is aimed at all those interested in what feminist theory and practice brings to today’s major political economic and environmental debates around sustainability, alternatives to economic development and gender power relations. (checked on 13 Nov. 2020)
  6. Lokavidya Perspectives: A Philosophy of Political Imagination for the Knowledge Age is a collection of articles that discuss the new ways of thinking that do not take European reference, and instead root themselves in the ways of thinking and doing of the people. (checked on 28 Dec. 2017)
  7. Against Elections: The Case for Democracy by David Van Reybrouck tries to revive a system in which government is not just for the people, but really by the people. As change-agent, Against Elections makes the argument that there are forms of government, what he terms sortitive or deliberative democracy, that are beginning to be practiced around the world, and can be the remedy we seek. (checked on 12 Aug. 2019)
  8. Asking, We Walk: The South as a New Political Imaginary, ed. by Corinne Kumar, Streelekha Books, Bangalore, 2007-2013 is a collection of essays that critique the Euro-centric Western civilization.. Set of 4 books with some of the most challenging, inspiring writings from around the world, on politics, knowledge, economy, struggles, imagination, and much else. (checked on 23 Mar. 2015)
  9. Land Rights in India: Policies, movements and challenges – edited by Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly. It engages with the topical issue of land rights in neoliberal India. It examines government policies, laws, land governance and land reforms from the perspective of social justice and people’s response to dispossession of land.  (checked on 10 Mar. 2017)
  10. Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives by Gareth Dale Manu V. Mathai Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira outlines three main lines of critique on the green growth project. It asks: what explains modern society’s investment in it, why has it emerged as a master concept in the contemporary conjuncture, and what social forces does it serve? Second, it unpicks and explains the contradictions within a series of prominent green growth projects. Finally, it weighs up the merits and demerits of alternative strategies and policies, asking the vital question: ‘if not green growth, then what?’ (checked on 20 Mar. 2017)
  11. Being Adivasi: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion edited by Abhay Flavian Xaxa and Ganesh N. Devy published by Penguin Random House India. The volume presents the views of the Adivasis and the Denotified communities on the process of development and its clash with their rights and brings together the discussion of several issues from the Adivasi perspective. Watch a recorded Book Discussion. (checked on 23 May 2022)
  12. In Words Matter: Writings against Silence, edited by eminent poet and scholar K. Satchidanandan, scholars and writers including Romila Thapar, Githa Hariharan, Pankaj Mishra, Salil Tripathi and Ananya Vajpeyi discuss the definitive values arising from India’s rich tradition of diversity, dialogue and debate from various points of view. They argue that it is essential to nurture critical thinking to fight all kinds of discrimination and insularity. (checked on 12 Jun. 2016)
  13. Politics in the developing world by Peter Burnell and Vicky Randall identifies and analyzes the processes of change that are transforming the politics of the Third World. It deals with central political themes and issues such as globalization – both economic and cultural, and resistance to both – inequality, identity, religion, the military, democracy, the environment, and policy development. (checked on 28 Jul. 2015)
  14. कहानी मेंढा गॉँव की – लेखक मिलिंद बोकील. गडचिरोली के मेंढा गॉंव ने गांधीवादी तरीके से लम्बे संघर्ष के बाद स्वशासन का अधिकार प्राप्त किया, उसकी यह कहानी है. इसे NBT ने प्रकाशित किया है. Original story in Marathi, Goshta Mendha Gavachi. Kahaani Mendha gaon ki – Hindi book published by  National Book Trust, New Delhi (2015). This story describes the historic struggle by village Mendha-Lekha in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra in obtaining community forest rights for the first time in the country under the FRA, 2006. Mendha has been renowned for implementing the concept of participatory democracy and local self-governance as enshrined in the Indian Constitution and for following the Ahimsa and Sarvodaya ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhawe. (checked on 15 Apr. 2016)
  15. Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice: Women write Political Ecology edited by Ariel Salleh. This book brings academics and alternative globalisation activists into conversation. (checked on 1 Dec. 2017)
  16. “The river is us; the river is in our veins”: re-defining river restoration in three Indigenous communities by Coleen A. Fox, et al conducted collaborative research with representatives from three Indigenous nations in three counteries to explore the relationship between Indigenous ways of knowing and being and their restoration efforts and observed  that restoration has the potential to not only restore ecosystem processes and services, but to repair and transform human relationships with rivers and create space politically for decolonizing river governance. (checked on 3 Jul. 2018)
  17. Eco-Feminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern by Ariel Salleh provides and antidote to neo-liberal complacency; and is as essential for activists in an era of globalization as it is for scholars of social theory, women;s studies, environmental and postcolonial studies. (checked on 1 Dec. 2017) On the second edition of this book (2018) (checked on 4 Oct. 2018)
  18. The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen translated from the German, shows how (privileged) people’s everyday practices, including individual and societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources and cheap labour from the disprivileged. It brilliantly demonstrates why systemic alternatives are required. (checked on 19 Feb. 2021)
  19. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age by Benjamin Barber advocates for a more encompassing participation and a more engaged citizenship. (checked on 1 Dec. 2017)
  20. In We Decide! author Michael Menser explains the three waves of participatory democracy theory to show that this movement is attentive to the mechanics of contemporary political practices. Menser also outlines “maximal democracy,” his own view of participatory democracy that expands people’s abilities to shape their own lives, reduce inequality, and promote solidarity. (checked on 9 Mar. 2018)
  21. In An Unusual Raja author Apa Pant describes the Aundh experiment in decentralised democracy which was based on the vision of Mahatma Gandhi.  As a responsible electorate began to develop, the Quit India movement engulfed the country and the Raja played a role in aiding the forces of resistance. (checked on 22 Mar. 2018)
  22. The Rojava Struggle – Exploring an unconventional learning resource or supplementary key readings – through a 45 page booklet – Kobane Calling – employing art and humour. (checked on 3 Dec. 2021)
  23. L’Avènement de la démocratie (The Advent of Democracy Series) IIV (in French) by Marcel Gauchet, one of France’s most influential contemporary thinkers. He has crafted a compelling historical account of half a millennium, exploring how we arrived at today’s crisis—and how we might get out. Book reviewed in English by Michael C. Behrent (checked on 27 Mar. 2018)

  24. Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories. Hilary Klein brings to the English-speaking world the soulful stories of indigenous women (of Mexico) who have decided to build ‘a world in which many worlds fit.’” (checked on 18 Dec 2018)
  25. Silence Would be Treason: Last Writings by Ken Saro-Wiwa, author of children’s books, novels, plays, poetry and articles/books on political and environmental issues (deposited in Maynooth University Research Archive Library). (checked on 18 Dec. 2018)
  26. आज के छोटे-छोटे गाँधी – बाबा मायाराम. इस सरल और सचित्र पुस्तिका में देश के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में सगठनों के रचना और संघर्ष के कामों के बारे में लिखा गया है. (checked on 31 Oct. 2019)
  27. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (LSE) by David Graeber and David Wengrow transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action. (checked on 15 Oct. 2021)

  28. Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement: Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities is a pioneering text that examines the ideas about social ecology and communalism behind the evolving political structures in the Kurdish region, edited by Stephen E Hunt.
  29. Indigenous Women’s Voices: 20 Years on from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies, edited by tebrakunna country and Emma Lee & Jennifer Evans (or click here for a free download). (checked on 23 Mar. 2022)

Articles, Essays & Articles:

  1. Indian farmers prevail: A conversation with Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers’ rights activist. In a wide ranging conversation with Kavitha Kuruganti, an Indian farmers’ rights activist, Pallav Das discusses the implications of the farmers’ success in having the three farm laws, aimed at corporatising agriculture, withdrawn, and how a sustainable and people-focused agricultural alternative could be constructed in the future. (checked on 2 Jan. 2022)

  2. Nai Talim Today: Gandhi’s Critique of Industrialism and An Education for Swaraj by Pallavi Varma Patil and Suit Sinha. The authors argue that an imagination of reinvented Nai Talim is possible today in Indigenous communities, where there is a spirited resistance to industrialism, looking, as an example, at the ongoing experiment of the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico. (checked on 3 Feb. 2022)
  3. Quand Vouz Voudrez… a 1976 poster which Envisioned Degrowth by Christine Dann discusses the relevance today of what the 4-decades-old Paris election poster stood for:  a future Paris – a brighter, safer, cleaner, more convivial and sustaining city.  The poster lists ‘This’, which are desirable attributes of life which Degrowth can bring about, and That, undesirable conditions that Degrowth can eliminate, and which in fact have become the mainstay of any other large city in the world today. (Checked on 1 June 2021)
  4. Citizen and the Sovereign: Stories from the largest human exodus in contemporary Indian history published by Migrant Workers Solidarity Network. A map of 158 protests, involving over a lakh protesters, mobilised on several kinds of issues like wage, food, returning home, shelter facilities and others, was collated. Their stories of resistance saw a diffused reportage, reported either as ‘conflicts’, ‘disturbances’, ‘skirmishes’, ‘chaos’ or ‘outburst’ rather than being represented as a form of resistance. (checked on 17 Nov. 2020)
  5. Reclaiming the Republic – A group of concerned citizens have undertaken to examine multiple challenges to the Republic in some depth, and to propose to fellow citizens means to protect and strengthen the Constitutional safeguards for our democratic polity and composite society. They see the forthcoming Lok Sabha election as an opportunity to retrieve and, indeed, reclaim from manipulation and subversion, the legacy of the Republic. (checked on 13 Feb. 2019)
  6. Tracing Panchayati Raj’s role in deepening democracy and decolonising governance over 30 years – a Commentary by C. R. Bijoy – tracing the 30-year history. The saga of decentralisation without democratisation is the story of hope to despair. (checked on 26 May 2022)
  7. Development Cooperation and Development-Environment Crisis by Kishore Saint. The paper discusses the dangers of co-option of cooperation development by mainstream development and the resultant development-environment crises. (checked on 23 Jan 2023)
  8. The problem and promise of democracy: Democracy has to be about the power inherent in each of us by Ashish Kothari. The article discusses the conditions for a successful decocracy, and makes a case for radical democracy. (checked on 17 Nov. 2020)

  9. People’s Policy for Post Pandemic Times (Aug. 2020) – a document drawn from the contribution of Jan Sarokar constituents and the discussions that took place either in or in connection with the Janta Parliament. This document attempts to capture the combined analysis and understanding of many people’s organisations and social movements on various issues affecting ordinary and marginalised citizens and suggests possible solutions, based on their engagements at the level of theory, practice and policy. (Checked on 14 Sep. 2020)
  10. Marx didn’t invent socialism, nor did he discover it by Steve Lalla, discusses how Socialism is a Universal Concept, touching upon its ancient history. (checked on 18 Dec. 2020)
  11. Learning from Com Niyogi in struggle for socialism in 21st century by Abhay Shukla. (checked on 1 Nov. 2021)
  12. #KashmirCivilDisobedience: Trauma l Resistance l Resilience l Two Months On by Anirudh Kala, Brinelle D’Souza, Revati Laul and Shabnam Hashmi. (checked on 14 Oct. 2019)
  13. On the first successful ‘Children’s Ward Sabha’ held in Bangalore in February 2012, in India. More than 500 children including children street and migrant children, school-going children, child representatives of ward-level children’s organisations and other marginalised groups of children participated. (checked on 23 Apr. 2019)
  14. Manifesto of Indian Farmers Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, Delhi, 30 November 2018 (checked on 5 Dec. 2018) Also in Hindi – pl. see below.
  15. भारतीय किसानों का घोषणापत्र अखिल भारतीय किसान संघर्ष समन्वय समिति द्वारा आयोजित ऐतिहासिक किसान मुक्ति मार्च के अवसर पर किसानों की प्रतिनिधि सभा में अंगीकृत, दिल्ली ३० नवम्बर २०१८ (checked on 5 Dec. 2018)
  16. Eco-Swaraj by Ashish Kothari. The broad components and values of eco-swaraj (practices that respect the limits of the Earth and the rights of other species, while pursuing the core values of social justice and equity) have been under discussion acoss India through the Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) process, which brings together a diverse set of actors from communities, civil society, and various professions who are involved in alternative initiatives across all sectors. (checked on 16 Jan. 2018)
  17. Post-democratic state by Aijaz Ahmad analyses facets of the historically novel kind of state that seems to be arising in many corners of the world, which combines elements derived selectively from the two classic forms of the capitalist state, the liberal and the fascist and sees that India too may be moving in that direction. He also sees hope despite the facts. (checked on 11 Mar. 2020)

  18. Nation-states are destroying the world. Could ‘bioregions’ be the answer?  by Shrishtee Bajpai, Juan Manuel Crespo and Ashish Kothari. From the border regions of South Asia to the Amazon rainforest, people are seeking new ways to organise societies that respect humans and nature. (checked on 10 Mar. 2022)

  19. Ingredients for a decolonial politics – cooking up a future to delight in. The personal and cultural change work needed to consciously experience and begin to heal the impacts of this culture – and to co-create genuine alternatives – can feel very uncomfortable precisely because of the conditioning that leads us to over-value intellectual, logical, more action oriented ways of being and denigrate emotional, introspective, more emergent ways of being. The work of decolonizing ourselves and our processes is core to the change we want to see in the world, and it needs to lead how we do what we do every step of the way, the authors Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick argue. (checked on 5 Mar. 2022)

  20. Could flexitarianism save the planet? by Sam Wolfson. Scientists say a drastic cut in meat consumption is needed, but this requires political will. Eating less meat would have implications for heart disease, animal cruelty, high food prices and environmental destruction. (checked on 22 Jan. 2019)
  21. The paper Decentralized Political Order: The Gandhian Perspective discusses the rationale of local democracy by looking at the democratic discourse surrounding the usefulness and limits of the representative form.  (checked on 6 Sep. 2016)
  22. On the Creation of a Global Peoples Assembly: Legitimacy and the Power of Popular Sovereignty by Richard Falk and Andrew Strauss. The analysis presented explains why a citizen-organised assmbly would be viable looks backward at the dynamics of empowerment from the world as it exists. (checked on 22 Nov. 2015)
  23. Political Ecology for Civil Society, is a manual designed for a broad audience and in particular for the use of civil society organisations and active citizens. It offers an accessible insight into political ecology providing intellectual and practical tools based on experience as “activist-scholars” or “engaged-scholars” of the new generation of political ecologists. (checked on 12 Mar. 2016)
  24. Women’s Co-Operatives: A Glimpse into Rojava’s Economic Model by Hawzhin Azeez on the networks of grassroots assemblies and co-operatives that the people of Rojava (western Kurdistan, North Syria) are carrying out is based on the radical model of Democratic Confederalism founded by the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and inspired by the works of the US ecologist Murray Bookchin. (checked on 23 Sep. 2019)

  25. Rojava’s Democratic Confederalism: A Radical Ecological Democracy in Practice? An essay in which the author Annalena Rommel attempts to evaluate whether (AANES – Syria) Rojava’s democratic confederalism corresponds the model of a radical ecological democracy and if it can further be characterised as an alternative to development within the post-development discourse. (checked on 4 Oct. 2019)

  26. From lakes as urban commons to integrated lake-water governance: The case of Bengaluru’s urban water bodies paper by Sharachchandra Lele and Mrinalini Bakshi Sengupta on urban lake governance in SAWAS special issue on Water Governance in south Asia. (checked on 4 Jul. 2018)
  27. Strengthening Democratic Decentralisation and Participatory Democracy in Maharashtra by Devika Deshmukh and Rajagopal Devara Gandhian discusses how ideas of gram swaraj (self-rule for villages) and panchayat raj system can become vehicles for ushering in much-needed social and political change by including all stakeholders in the process of decision-making and public policy formulation. (checked on 14 Oct. 2019)
  28. In the essay Power in India: radical pathways authors Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das show how grassroots political movements that are emerging in India could signal a gradual shift to direct or radical democracy, coupled with making representative democracy more accountable and ecologically sustainable. (checked on 12 Jun. 2016)
  29. Alli Kawsay: Epistemology and Political Practice in the Territories, a Possibility from the Andean Pluriverse for Ecological Justice and the Care of Mother Nature – a chapter by Eduardo Erazo Acosta in the book ‘The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies’. The Alli Kawsay (Buen Vivir) is an option to be lived urgently now, as a serious and fundamental option that originates from ancestral knowledge, is lived by millions in the global south, and that today is taken up again at the global level by activists and people aware of the care of nature as a subject of rights in the international political framework. (checked on 10 Aug. 2020)
  30. In The “Right to the City”: Limits to Rights Talk and the need for rights to the Commons, Patrick Bond discusses the emerging debate about how and whether to invoke ‘Rights Talk’ – the appeal to a higher juristic source of power than standard state social policy – so as to gain access to greater levels of state services and goods, with the ‘Commons’ posed as the alternative approach. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  31. 5 Scams The RTI Act Helped Bust In Its First 10 Years – by Betwa Sharma. Right To Information activists and citizens have filed tens of millions of applications to further transparency and accountability in governance, challenge the exploitation of natural resources by politicians, corporates and the mafia, as well as to improve their daily lives in a myriad ways from accessing ration cards and pensions to inspecting land records and exam answer-sheets. (checked on 18 Oct. 2015)
  32. Remembering Joel Kovel – A Friend, Comrade and a Visionary Ecosocialist by Quincy Saul (checked on 1 June 2018)
  33. India 2100: Towards Radical Ecological Democracy, FUTURES, 56 (2014) 62–72, by Ashish Kothari, Essay on the possibilities of a sustainable and equitable future for India, based on on-ground and policy initiatives already underway in many parts of the country. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  34. Beyond ‘development’ and ‘growth’: The search for alternatives in India towards a sustainable and equitable world by Ashish Kothari, inlcuded in the book Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives. (read a chapter titled ‘Beyond ‘development’ and ‘growth’: The search for alternatives in India towards a sustainable and equitable world‘ by Ashish Kothari in this book) (checked on 14 Apr. 2016)
  35. Radical Well-Being Alternatives to Development Notes from a discussion at World Social Forum, Tunis, 27 March 2015, Organised by Kalpavriksh, Global Diversity Foundation, Centre for Environment and Development, Peoples’ Sustainability Treaties, and SADED, this workshop brought together a few alternative approaches, to learn from each other, and build common ground. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  36. Another exit strategy by Ashish Kothari shows glimpses of what an alternative kind of exit strategy from the EU might be. (checked on 18 Jul. 2016)
  37. In Why Ecosocialism: For a Red-Green Future by Michael Löwy the author discusses why socialism must place democratic management and reorganization of the productive system at the heart of the transformation, along with a firm commitment to ecological stewardship.  Also see – A Roundtable discussion on Löwy’s piece, with Ashish Kothari, Herman Daly, Mary Mellor, Giorgos Kallis, and other thinkers: https://greattransition.org/publication/ecosocialism-roundtable (checked on 20 Dec. 2018)
  38. The Commons as a Template for Transformation by David Bollier: An essay on how the movement towards safeguarding or revitalising the commons (physical, intellectual, etc) is crucial to the search for sustainability. Commentaries on the essay are also featured. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  39. Buen Vivir, Degrowth and Ecological Swaraj: Alternatives to sustainable development and the Green Economy by Ashish Kothari, Federico Demaria and Alberto Acosta discuss Buen Vivir from Latin America, Degrowth from Europe and Ecological Swaraj (or Radical Ecological Democracy) from India. The intention is to outline that there is politics beyond a unilinear future, unsustainable and unjust, consisting primarily of economic growth. (checked on 23 Dec. 2015)
  40. Finding Pathways to a Better Future  by John Foran, on how peoples’ movements need to and can reconfigure political power for a better world, through the imagining of new kinds of ‘parties’. (checked on 18 Dec. 2017)

  41. Report on Jan Sabhas conducted by Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC, Maharashtra) in the 6 administrative zones as part of 2014-15 Participatory Budgeting cycle, by Nikhil V.J. as a member of Citizens Facilitation Network. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  42. The astounding political turnaround in Greece, with the victory of the leftist Syriza party, could help promote alternative economic and social pathways. These four articles, read together, show this potential. Will it be actualised? Time will tell. Greece’s solidarity movement : ‘It’s a whole new model – and it’s workingby Jon Henley; Syriza’s historic win puts Greece on collision course with Europe by Ian Traynor and Helena Smith, Transforming crisis to krisis by Insurgenta Iskra and Greece: Syriza juggles coal, pipelines and climate ambitions by Arthur Neslen published in The Guardian. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  43. खरे स्वशासन कसे येईल ? मिलिंद बोकील यांचा हा  लेख ‘मी माझ्या भोवतालच्या जीवनाचा, कारभाराचा नियंत / नियंती आहे,’ असे नागरिकाला वाटत नाही, या वस्तुस्थितिपासून सुरु होतो, व ही परिस्थिती बदलायची कशी या प्रश्नाच्या उत्तराचा वेध घेतो. Khare svashaasan kase yeiil? This article in Marathi by Milind Bokil begins with the fact that citizens do not experience the power to change their situation to their liking, and goes on to explore ways to turn the situation around.
  44. Manifesto of People’s Global Action, a coordination of movements across the world to fight WTO and “free” trade, which puts profits before people; transfers means of production into the hands of a few large corporations by displacing traditional means of production; is primarily dependent on unsustainable exploitation of natural resources which results in stark economic inequality in the society. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  45. Politics and ‘The Totality of Natural Relations’ by Ariel Salleh states that an ecofeminist emphasis on the totality of natural relations opens the way for a respectful conversation between the social movements, and that it does this by throwing new light across given Marxist constructs of class, labour, and value. She calls ecofeminism a model of relational care and sustainable provisioning to learn from. (checked on 16 Nov. 2017)
  46. How an Ecuadorian Community is Showing Its Government How to Really Live Well by Neema Pathak Broome and Ashish Kothari on how the Nabon community in Ecuador is showing what real ‘well-being’ means, moving away from the neo-extractivism its govt has been promoting. (checked on 18 Dec. 2017)
  47. The residents of Paris for the first time participate in the city’s participatory budget project. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  48. Polarising Development: Alternatives to Neoliberalism and the Crises, edited by Lucia Pradella, Thomas Marois. (checked on 25 Jun. 2015)
  49. Blog on the theme – The interplay between the politics of resistance and the dynamics of constructive alternatives, by Ashish Kothari: Will 2015 be a year of hope? (see India Together: RESISTANCE & RECONSTRUCTION) (checked on 23 Mar. 2015)
  50. The Idea of India Makes Little Room for Its Ecology by Nagraj Adve explains how global warming and its effects gently – and sometimes more abruptly – interrogate our modern political imagination of the nation and points at an approach that may better prepare residents of South Asia to cope with the challenges that these might pose before us. (checked on 2 Mar. 2016)
  51. Beyond ‘development’ and ‘growth’: The search for alternatives in India towards a sustainable and equitable world‘ is a chapter (authored by Ashish Kothari) in the book Green Growth: Political ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives, edited by Gareth Dale, Manu V. Mathai and Jose Puppim de Oliveira, published by Zed Books. (checked on 10 Jun. 2016)
  52. In “Economic Democracy: An Ethically Desirable Socialism That Is Economically Viable” David Schweickart proposes an alternative political-economic system model that has neither capital markets nor labor markets in the usual sense. Workers would control their own jobs and workplaces, while productive resources would become the collective property of society and there would be social control over investment. (checked on 10 Jun. 2016)
  53. In “Participatory Economics and the Next System” Robin Hahnel describes a model (developed together with Michael Albert) that revolves around (a) social ownership of the productive “commons,” (b) consumption rights based on effort and need, (c) and workplace councils and neighborhood consumer councils which coordinate their interrelated activities through participatory planning rather than through markets. (checked on 10 Jun. 2016)
  54. In “Whole Systems Change: A Framework & First Steps for Social/Economic Transformation” Riane Eisler’s model places economic policies and practices in their larger social context, proposing two integrative social categories that go beyond religious vs. secular, capitalist vs. socialist, East vs. West, and so forth. It proposes an action plan to break with traditions of domination, identifies trends in this direction, and outlines four strategies to build the missing foundations for a more equitable and sustainable socio-economic system. (checked on 10 Jun. 2016)
  55. In Social Democracy: Not Socialism, and Coming to America” Lane Kenworthy proposes a model that closely resembles the actual political economies of the Scandinavian countries and has as its primary goals the full realization of economic security, equality (low inequality) of opportunity, and shared prosperity. It is in essence a market capitalist model with generous and employment-friendly social policy. (checked on 10 Jun. 2016)
  56. The Mexican indigenous community that ran politicians out of town – Cherán, in the violent state of Michoacán, will stand apart from Mexico’s electioneering season, having tackled corruption and exploitation by banishing political parties, police and gangsters. (checked on 4 Apr. 2018)

  57. Hamburg — straddling the dichotomies of being rich and being woke by Prathap Nair. Even as there is increasing alienation between Europe and China through the trade war, Hamburg has been courting China and India. (checked on 11 Sep. 2018)

  58. Thoughts on Libertarian Municipalism by Murray Bookchin (1999, revised for publication). He explains that while communitarianism refers to movements and ideologies that seek to transform society by creating so-called alternative economic and living situations such as food cooperatives, health centers, schools, printing workshops, community centers, neighborhood farms, “squats,” unconventional lifestyles, and the like, Libertarian municipalism, by contrast, is decidedly a confrontational form of face-to-face democratic, antistatist politics. (checked on 6 Oct. 2018)

  59. Citizens’ Assemblies and the next democratic revolution by Brett Hennig It appears that the demand for citizens’ assemblies is crossing cultural barriers and being promoted as the preferred democratic tool of a new generation of activists.
  60. Manifesto of Indian Farmers: Adopted by an assembly representing the farmers of India on the occasion of the historic Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, Delhi, 30 November 2018.   भारती किसानों का घोषणापत्र: अखिल भारतीय किसान संघर्ष समन्वय समिति द्वारा आयोजित ऐतिहासिक किसान मुक्ति मार्च के अवसर पर किसानों की प्रतिनिधि सभा में अंगीकृत, दिल्ली, 30 नवंबर 2018 (checked on 16 Aug. 2019)

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  1. On Globalizations Special Forum, The People’s Sovereignty Network and Globalizations present Reclaiming democracy from below: from the contemporary state capitalist system to peoples’ sovereignty, which is co-edited by Nore McKeon and Gonzalo Berron, and includes the foll. Contents:  Introduction – Nora McKeon and Gonzalo Berrón  Contextualizing corporate control in the agrifood and extractive sectors – Jennifer Clapp and Joseph  Purugganan Land, territory and commons: voices and visions from struggles – Tomaso Ferrando, Isa Alvarez, Molly Anderson, Sophie Dowllar, Harriet Friedmann, Antonio Gonzalez, Chandra Maracle, Nora McKeon  Rethinking law from below: experiences from the Kuna People and Rojava – Felipe Bley Folly in dialogue with Manigueuigdinapi Jorge Stanley Icaza, Havin Guneser and others  Knowledge and education for people’s sovereignty – Molly Anderson and Priscilla Settee;  Releasing the full transformative power of feminism – Zdravka Dimitrova, Isa Álvarez, Sophie Dowllar, Havin Guneser (checked on 5 Aug. 2020)

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