Social Ecology and the Right to the City

Description

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.

About the editors:

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 İmralı 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 Córdoba, 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.

230 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2019