Call for Papers for the Socio-Environmental Stream
“Towards a Radical Eco-Socialist Praxis”
Across the globe, within the multiple crises we are living in, grassroots social movements are challenging the commodification of nature and fighting for environmental justice. From indigenous communities protecting their ancestral lands and communities to urban residents resisting displacement, these struggles offer a glimmer of hope towards a vision for a liveable future.
They are act of resistance transcending a mere opposition between proponents of “development” and those advocating for localized environmental protection. They constitute active and ongoing challenges to accumulation-driven development paradigms, enacted in ways that profoundly affect both quotidian experiences and individual subjectivities. They imbue meaning and bring into public discourse the representations, demands, claims, and, most importantly, the actions of those seeking to understand and transform social-ecological relations. Therefore, they have the capacity to conceptualize and enact the re-emergence of the political within an era marked by post-democratic depoliticization.
Such acts of resistance expose the lie that the current socio-environmental crisis is a result of unavoidable ‘natural’ disasters – a depoliticizing narrative that denies the need for system change and asks for individual adaptation and responsibility, absolving the capitalist class and placing the burden on the most vulnerable.
This protracted and pervasive crisis is inextricably linked to capitalism’s hunger for accumulation, dispossession, extractivism, and privatization. What is known as the environmental or climate crisis is entrenched in the very foundations of capitalism, where nature is ruthlessly commodified (often through the impetus to render nature invisible), and the commons are enclosed (or even re-created) for private gain. Mainstream, elite-led attempts to ‘save the planet’ become mere greenwashing, masking new avenues for capital accumulation and reinforcing extant power structures. Land grabs, resource extraction, energy hunting and the unfolding climate catastrophe are but manifestations of the fundamental contradictions that inhere in capitalism as a mode of production, no matter the latter’s internal changes.
These inherent contradictions are further exacerbated by the changing nature of work and the rise of new technologies, which deepen the exploitation of both labour and the environment. The precarization of work, the rise of the gig economy, and the erosion of workers’ rights are not only symptoms of late capitalism but also contribute to further environmental degradation. The relentless pursuit of private profit and the mantra of ‘growth’ and ‘investment’ compels corporations to externalize environmental costs, jeopardizing the health and well-being of workers and communities. Analysing the interconnected struggles against all the above is crucial for forging a path towards social and ecological justice.
Finally, this relentless pursuit of profit manifests most brutally in the unbridled expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, a relentless drive that pushes beyond the boundaries of a habitable planet. While the immediate aim of this extractivist frenzy is profit, its consequences are undeniably lethal. They kill indiscriminately, randomly, and with a cruel prejudice against the poor and vulnerable, particularly in the Global South. Each new pipeline, each new oil well, locks in future emissions and intensifies this deadly calculus. As the atmosphere chokes on carbon dioxide, the lethality of every additional ton becomes undeniable. It is a form of violence, normalized and sanitized, woven into the very fabric of capitalist accumulation.
We invite submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- The political economy of the environmental crisis
- The commodification and financialization of nature
- Environmental justice and social movements
- Urban political ecology
- The critique of ‘green capitalism’ and ‘sustainable development’
- Alternative visions for a just and sustainable future
- The role of the state, supranational bodies, and policy in addressing the environmental crisis
- New forms of imperialism and the question of the environment
- The intersectionality of environmental struggles
- The conflict between the needs of the Global South and the Global North
- Acting for the environment and against eco-fascism
- The role of class in the climate crisis
- The environmental impact of war and militarization
- The environmental impact of AI and, more broadly, the digital economy
- Representations of nature and ecology
- Marxism and ecological thought
Submit on the online form or via the website:
