Social Ecology and the Right to the City
Federico Venturini, Emet Değirmenci, Inés Morales, eds.

Cities today are increasingly at the forefront of the environmental and social crisis—they are simultaneously a major cause and a potential solution. Across the world, a new wave of urban social movements is rising to fight against corporate control, social exclusion, hostile immigration policies, gender oppression, and ecological devastation. These movements are building economic, social, and political alternatives based on solidarity, equality, and participation. This anthology develops the debates that began at the recent Transnational Institute of Social Ecology’s (TRISE) conference about the dire need to rebuild the social and political realities of our world’s cities. It discusses the prospects of radical urban movements; examines the revolutionary potential of the concept of “the Right to the City,” and looks at how activists, scholars, and community movements can work together towards an ecological and democratic future. A fruitful conversation between theory and practice, this book opens new ground for rethinking systemic urban change in a way that challenges oppression and transforms how people work, create, and live together.

Federico Venturini is an independent activist-researcher. In 2016, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Leeds on the relations between contemporary cities and urban social movements. He holds an M.Phil. from the University of Trieste as well as a Masters in History and European Culture from the University of Udine (Italy). He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology since 2013, and the International ?mral? Peace Delegation, organized by the EU Turkey Civic Commission, since 2016.

Emet Değirmenci is a long-term social ecologist; an independent researcher in women and ecology; a writer, speaker, teacher, and forager; a re-indigenizing and rewilding enthusiast; and an ecological farm designer.

Ines Morales Bernardos is a forest engineer and specialist in agroecology and organic farming. She is currently conducting a PhD at the Institute of Sociology and Peasant Studies (ISEC), University of Cordoba, Spain. She researches urban food movements with case studies in Madrid, Athens, Lisbon, and Naples. As an activist, she has been involved in autonomous and anarchists movements across Europe.

190 pages; 2019

Table of Contents

• Introduction - Federico Venturini, Emet Değirmenci, and Inés Morales
  
  • About this Book
  • Getting Started: Understanding Ecological Disasters and Inequality
  • Changing the World
  • The Role of the Activist-Researcher
  • Contributions to this Volume
  • Acknowledgements
• Part 1: Discovering Social Ecology 12
  
  • The Legacy of Murray Bookchin - Brian Morris
  • Social Ecology: A Philosophy for the Future - Dan Chodorkoff
  • A Critique of The Limits to Growth from a Social Ecology Perspective  - Emet Değirmenci
• Part 2: Engaging with the Right to the City 58
  
  • Is the Right to the City a Right or a Revolution? - Magali Fricaudet
  • Moving beyond the Right to the City: Urban Commoning in Greece - Theodoros Karyotis
  • Reconceptualising Rights and Spatial Justice through Social Ecology - Federico Venturini
• Part 3: The Kurdish Answer: Democratic Confederalism
  
  • The Evolution of the Kurdish Paradigm - Havin Guneser with Eleanor Finley
  • The Democratization of Cities in North Kurdistan - Ercan Ayboga and Egit Pale
• Part 4: Transforming Social Theory
  
  • Do We Need a New Theory of the State? - Metin Guven
  • Direct Democracy, Social Ecology, and Public Time - Alexandros Schismenos
  • The Present is Pregnant with a New Future - Olli Tammilehto
• Part 5: Walking with the Right to the City
  
  • Squatting as Claiming the Right to the City - Diana Bogado, Noel Manzano and Marta Solanas
  • Rights Begin in the Small Places Closest to Home: A Story from Constitution Street - Jemma Neville
• Notes on the Contributors

Social Ecology and the Right to the City Retail Prices
Paperback:
978-1-55164-681-7 $25.99
Hardcover:
978-1-55164-683-1 $85.99
PDF eBook:
978-1-55164-685-5 $11.99