Agribusiness, Biotechnology and War
This article originally appeared in Z Magazine, September 2002. Virtually all of the new, technology-based industries of the past century have been products of wartime. World War I ushered in the widespread use of mechanization and the beginnings of aviation. World War II brought us nuclear power, modern rocketry and cybernetics. The corporate giants of […]
Harbinger Vol. 3 No. 1 — Buttercups and Sunflowers: On the Evolution of First and Second Nature
by Sonja Schmitz One remarkable feature of social ecology is that Murray Bookchin’s vision of an ecological society goes beyond the development of eco-technologies and organic agriculture, but expands into the philosophical realm through dialectical naturalism. Murray recognizes the importance of healing the seemingly disparate relationship between nature and culture (first and second nature) by reminding […]
Harbinger Vol. 3 No. 1 — Education & Community Action: A History of the Institute for Social Ecology’s Programs
by Michael Caplan Emerging from the proletarian socialist movements of the Old Left, infusing a distinctly libertarian ecological outlook in the rise of the New Left, social theorist and activist Murray Bookchin started to lay the foundations of a remarkable revolutionary body of work which he soon called social ecology. His pioneering book, Our Synthetic […]
Harbinger Vol. 3 No. 1 — Alliance for Freedom and Direct Democracy
From August 23rd to August 25th, 2002, thirty anti-authoritarian organizers from around the U.S. converged on a farm in upstate New York to found a new political confederation: the Alliance for Freedom and Direct Democracy. Our Mission AFADD is a confederation of anti-authoritarians working toward the realization of a free society. We believe that there […]
Harbinger Vol. 3. No. 1 — Economics in a Social-Ecological Society
n the midst of our struggles for a better world, social ecologists have frequently engaged in critical dialogue with other strands of radical thought about just what kind of world we’re struggling for. Such dialogues often address the question of how people in a liberated future will organize their material relationships with one another and […]
Harbinger Vol. 3 No. 1 — Radical Alternatives: An Interview with Ingrid Young
By Michael Caplan In the past few years, Norway and surrounding Scandinavian countries have proven to be a hotbed of activism inspired by the works of social ecology. Study groups, publishing projects, protests, conferences and seminars, anti-racist and ecological activism, and political organizational building are all common activities of the 4-year-old group Democratic Alternative (DA). […]
Harbinger Editorial Vol 3, Issue 1
Welcome to the latest issue of Harbinger, a Journal of Social Ecology. This issue has been a long time coming, but well worth the wait. Our goal, to inform and inspire those actively pursuing an ecological society rooted in decentralist, directly democratic ideals, is clearly expressed in the articles that make up this issue. The […]
Harbinger Vol. 3 No. 1– Reflections: An Overview of the Roots of Social Ecology
he extent to which radical versions of environmentalism underwent sweeping metamorphoses and evolved into revolutionary ideologies when the New Left came of age is difficult to convey to the present generation, which has been almost completely divorced from the ebullient days of the New Left, not to speak of all the major problems in classical […]
Harbinger – Credits Vol 3, Issue 1
he Institute For Social Ecology publishes Harbinger, A Journal of Social Ecology. We would like to thank the following contributors that made this issue of Harbinger possible: Managing Editor Michael Caplan Advisory Board Dan Chodorkoff Chuck Morse Erin Royster Sonja Schmitz Brian Tokar Print & Web Design Michael Caplan Copy Editor Erin Royster Contributors AFADD […]
Social Ecology and Participatory Economics (1)
Response to Michael Albert, Summarizing Participatory Economics (The following exchange, four essays in all, took place in 2002 as a joint debate organized by the Institute for Social Ecology, beginning with introductory statements by Michael Albert on participatory economics or ‘parecon’ and by me on economics in a social-ecological society. The four essays here are […]