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David Barkin

Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Departamento de Producción Económica, Faculty Member

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David Barkin, doctor in economics from Yale University, is Distinguished Professor at the Univerisad Autonoma Metropolitana. (Mexico City) and an emeritus member of the National Research Council. He published numerous books on problems related to Mexican economic development, food systems analysis and sustainable development. His latest book is: De la Protesta a la Propuesta: 50 años imaginando y construyendo el futuro. He collaborates with communities in many parts of Mexico to advance projects for sustainable regional resource management. These projects are designed to promote local capacities for self-government and ecosystem management while consolidating their ability to improve their quality of life.

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Alejandra Sánchez

Raúl Delgado Wise

Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

Peter Critchley

Manchester Metropolitan University

Arizona State University

Arizona State University

Esra Karadaş Ekinci

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Frederic Vandenberghe

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

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Papers by David Barkin

Session 1 : Common as alternative for the future (II) : Community revolutionary subject and social transformation

A fundamental change in the power structures that organize and give meaning to economic and socio... more A fundamental change in the power structures that organize and give meaning to economic and socio-political activities • Scientific and technological revolutions • Any kind of revolution involves a totality of transformations of social life. 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition The revolution • In the capitalist mode of production: proletariat and bourgeois • Symbolic revolutionary subject: embodied by the proletarian class. Political consciousness Class consciousness Vision of class 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition

Pueblos en resistencia: forjando el sujeto revolucionario comunitario

Estudios críticos del desarrollo, May 8, 2022

Many Peasants and Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and much of the Global South, are implementing th... more Many Peasants and Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and much of the Global South, are implementing their own visions of the many new worlds that will be part of the global reorganisation that is already under construction. In distinction to the debates of past eras, now there can be no doubt that they constitute a social and economic force that is altering the social and productive dynamics in many countries. In Mexico, they continue to produce traditional crops, while modifying their techniques to incorporate agroecological experiences from other communities, diversifying output and protecting the environment. Recently, they are enriching this local practice with a systematisation of their inherited traditions and cosmologies, creating effective models of social, political and environmental organisation that lend authority to their claims to be able to manage their territories autonomously. There is a growing body of scientific literature that substantiates this capacity, demonstrating that the collective knowledge of the global networks of local communities is more effective in protecting biodiversity and attending to their own basic needs while improving their quality of life than that of societies more fully integrated into the global economy. In conclusion, we describe how these visions are shaping international networks that are defining new channels for collaboration, improving the quality of life, and protecting communities from the continuing incursions of capital.

Alternativas del Sur Global para enfrentar las crisis social y ambiental

Debates en sociología, Dec 11, 2023

Las teorías recibidas de las ciencias sociales sustentan el despliegue de las fuerzas del colonia... more Las teorías recibidas de las ciencias sociales sustentan el despliegue de las fuerzas del colonialismo e imperialismo, así como la consolidación de un «mercado global», dando lugar al etnocidio y devastación ambiental a escala planetaria. En vez de denunciarlas es oportuno ofrecer otro marco analítico para acercarnos a una comprensión de los pueblos que están resistiendo este despojo con visiones «muy otras». Estas sociedades están construyendo formas comunitarias de vida, fincadas en otras cosmogonías, reconociendo lo valioso de las distintas aportaciones de los géneros, la riqueza de las diferencias generacionales, las capacidades de autogobernarse y florecer, la importancia de la colectividad, sin menospreciar el significado de la individualidad para fortalecer la sociedad. Para abordar sus aportaciones, se requiere de una nueva epistemología que hemos formalizado en la Economía Ecológica Radical. Empezamos con La milpa mesoamericana como ejemplo de las profundas diferencias entre los enfoques productivistas y los basados en la íntima relación entre la sociedad y la naturaleza. La comunalidad orienta estrategias deliberadas de forjar solidaridad y bienestar con importantes lazos de apoyo mutuo entre sociedades que están continuamente incorporando innovaciones que les fortalecen, siempre conscientes de la obligación de cuidar sus entornos, diseñando metabolismos socioecológicos apropiados.

Governance from below and environmental justice: Community water management from the perspective of social metabolism

by Mario E . Fuente Carrasco and David Barkin

Ecological Economics, 2019

The Mexican neoliberal political regime created a hegemonic governance model (top-down) which has... more The Mexican neoliberal political regime created a hegemonic governance model (top-down) which has tried to impose a single definition for the rules of the distribution of the costs and benefits (environmental and economic) related to the appropriation of "natural resources" (fossil fuels, forests, mineral, water, genetic). Social metabolism is a framework that highlights the contribution of indigenous communities in their struggles to build a movement of environmental justice and austerity (a regionally sensitive alternative to degrowth). By forging an indigenous communitarian identity, known as comunalidad in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca, they are forging a new form of "bottom-up" governance. We designed key components and indicators to understand the social metabolism related to three policy objectives: a) local governance; b) reducing water vulnerability; and c) social justice. Heterodox perspectives by Marx and Illich enrich the analysis. The analysis emphasizes the importance of the social control of the "tools" needed to protect their communities and their heritage, transforming the institutions that were imposed on them. The approach is critical for constructing a research program in "ecological economics from below."

Building Sustainable Communities in the Global South: The Communitarian Revolutionary Subject

Visions and Strategies for a Sustainable Economy, 2022

This essay addresses some of the underlying causes of the numerous conflicts between indigenous a... more This essay addresses some of the underlying causes of the numerous conflicts between indigenous and peasant communities and the nation-states within which they reside. It gives voice to the actors involved in forging alternatives to the development proposals of the hegemonic forces in the world-system. They are participating in social movements guided by different cosmologies, products of their multiple ethnic origins, and the profound philosophical and epistemological debates of the past half-century. Their organizations are discovering new ways of integrating their belief systems, their cultures and their relationships to their environments to create contrasting models of society, models that directly address the demands for social justice and sustainability while protecting the whole panoply of traits that define a people. They are consciously involved in implementing collective solutions to consolidate their autonomy, improve well-being, and assure responsible environmental management.

Postcolonial and Anti-Systemic Resistance by Indigenous Movements in Mexico

Journal of World-Systems Research, Aug 25, 2022

Indigenous resistance against neoliberalism reveals numerous social transformations and political... more Indigenous resistance against neoliberalism reveals numerous social transformations and political contributions in the context of a postcolonial transition from the world-system. The Mexican indigenous movement, inspired by the Zapatista rebellion, renewed conversations between the country's diverse indigenous peoples but also established new alliances with non-indigenous sectors of national society in defense of the commons and alternative ways of life to the civilizational order of capital. The radicalism, led by the indigenous peoples in their process of transformation into a social subject deploys new forms of collective action that break with the ideological discourses and narratives of modernity. As in other parts of the global South, communities in Mexico are actively engaged in consolidating their ability to govern themselves, through strategies of autonomy and self-determination, providing a wide variety of services to improve the quality of life of their members, diversifying their productive base and renewing their cultural heritage, while defending and caring for their territories. The indigenous movement is currently experiencing a conceptual and discursive renewal that inverts the assimilationist thesis implicit in the slogan of "Never again a Mexico without us," from which their historical exclusion in the project of nation was questioned, to "We, without Mexico" that poses a radical questioning of the worn-out model of the nation-state, which assumes as its main objective to think (and act) beyond the State and capital. As part of international networks and alliances, they are engaged in leaving the world-system.

Cuba 1968 : Supplement to the Statistical Abstract of Latin America. University of California at Los Angeles : Latin American Center, 1970

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018

Reflections on the evolution of the Union of Radical Political Economics and its relation to the ... more

La estrategia cubana de desarrollo

Foro internacional, Oct 1, 1971

... perfectamente la decepci?n cubana sobre la estructura econ?mica existente as? como el deseo d... more

Bottom-up approaches

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Approaches in ecological economics that involve placing "people" first. They center their analysi... more Approaches in ecological economics that involve placing "people" first. They center their analysis and policy on the goals and dynamics of the communities and their institutions; they focus on local initiatives to implement change. These approaches are generally specific to each social group, incorporating important elements of the cultural and political heritage that defines the way in which communities define and resolve the challenges they face. They are often an integral part of efforts to resolve distributional conflicts among competing world visions. Because of this geographic and cultural specificity, these approaches are often limited to case studies of particular problems. Bottom-up approaches, however, are central to community efforts to assert their autonomy, their ability to govern themselves democratically. Their significance for ecological economics lies in the power that these approaches offer for building political alliances among social groups to confront common problems or institutions at a regional, national, and international level. Their relevance is particularly significant in environmental management. The value of local knowledge is paramount for conserving and promoting biodiversity. For this reason, the application of the lessons from traditional farming systems to increase food self-sufficiency have been strengthened by the new-found interest in creating varieties of agroecology suited to local conditions, both environmental and economic. The world's largest social organization, La Vía Campesina, with member organizations in 83 countries, brings together more than 200 million people who practice bottom-up approaches to promote food sovereignty, as an alternative to industrial agri-food systems m the international marketplace.

Indigenous knowledge

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Knowledge that combines the accumulated wisdom of generations that have integrated their understa... more Knowledge that combines the accumulated wisdom of generations that have integrated their understandings of the way in which societies interact with their surroundings and an inherited cosmogony. Useful innovations are increasingly incorporated into these systems. Indigenous knowledge is increasingly recognized as crucial for conservation and planetary stewardship. The long histories of indigenous peoples and local communities' placebased living and time-honored traditions generated intricate and complex systems of knowledge about the world around them. Indigenous peoples number hundreds of millions worldwide and occupy more than one-quarter of the globe. They are generally organized into communities with common cultural and linguistic roots; their diversity creates multiple ways of valuing nature. Sometimes their relationships with the nation-states within which they live are codified in treaties with the colonial powers that invaded their territories, allowing them to transform this accumulated wisdom into autonomous institutions for governing themselves, for attempting to provide for their needs, and for caring for their territories.

Noam Chomsky. La responsabilidad de los intelectuales. Barcelona : Ariel, 1969. (Ariel Quincenal)

Foro internacional, Apr 1, 1971

Top-down approaches

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Radical ecological economics

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Social metabolism

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Proyección de la demanda de médicos en México : 1965-1980

Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos, May 1, 1971

Viviendo el pacto fáustico.La resiliencia perversa frente al cambio climático

Veredas: Revista del Pensamiento Sociológico, Jan 31, 2014

* El pacto fáustico refiere a un "pacto con el demonio" en la leyenda clásica alemana de Fausto, ... more * El pacto fáustico refiere a un "pacto con el demonio" en la leyenda clásica alemana de Fausto, según la cual una persona ofrecería su alma a Mefistófeles a cambio de favores diabólicos poderosos; según Wikipedia, es un referente cultural muy extendido de la cultura "occidental". Fue inmortalizado en la obra poética del mismo nombre de Goethe en 1808-1832 e inspiró la creación de una obertura de Wagner.

Jesús Puente Leyva. Distribución del ingreso en un área urbana : el caso de Monterrey. México : Siglo XXI Editores, 1969. 115 p

Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos, 1969

Globalization: Love It or Leave It

Latin American Perspectives, 2002

Millions of people around the world are defying conventional thinking, often at great risk to the... more Millions of people around the world are defying conventional thinking, often at great risk to themselves and to their communities. Instead of toeing the line of free trade and regional economic integration, they are retreating into more insular patterns to exercise control over the ecosystems that they are called on to husband, to produce more of their own basic needs, and to diversify productively so that they do not have to close themselves off to the world economy. They are actively rejecting the call for a crusade to shape a single international economy, impetuously setting out on a different path to social and cultural diversity and environmental democracy in an attempt to ensure themselves a modicum of security and material well-being. Large contingents of people in the Third World and even in the wealthy countries are actively attempting to construct their own alternatives. They are creating bold new strategies that not only offer greater possibilities for their own satisfaction but also promise to produce a new set of goods and services that will contribute to improving the quality of life for those who have become trapped in the globalized society while helping to ameliorate the environmental crises that threaten us all. Even as the world's leaders bask in the reflected heat of the preachers of globalization, assuring all who will listen of the unlimited benefits of free trade and integration, vast contingents of workers and peasants and even some renegade professionals and intellectuals are obstreperously bursting into the meetings of the rich and powerful, giving voice to their disenchantment. From the perspective of the South, there is a growing understanding of the costs of the new world order for people who have been dismissed by the powers that be. Especially in Mexico-one of the celebrated "heroic participants" cementing the conduits of global interchange-an unexpected groundswell of opposition has produced a remarkable proliferation of alternative strategies.

Corporate nature

Capitalism Nature Socialism, 1999

ABSTRACT

Session 1 : Common as alternative for the future (II) : Community revolutionary subject and social transformation

A fundamental change in the power structures that organize and give meaning to economic and socio... more A fundamental change in the power structures that organize and give meaning to economic and socio-political activities • Scientific and technological revolutions • Any kind of revolution involves a totality of transformations of social life. 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition The revolution • In the capitalist mode of production: proletariat and bourgeois • Symbolic revolutionary subject: embodied by the proletarian class. Political consciousness Class consciousness Vision of class 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition 1. Visions of the revolution and the revolutionary subject: the Marxist tradition

Pueblos en resistencia: forjando el sujeto revolucionario comunitario

Estudios críticos del desarrollo, May 8, 2022

Many Peasants and Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and much of the Global South, are implementing th... more Many Peasants and Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and much of the Global South, are implementing their own visions of the many new worlds that will be part of the global reorganisation that is already under construction. In distinction to the debates of past eras, now there can be no doubt that they constitute a social and economic force that is altering the social and productive dynamics in many countries. In Mexico, they continue to produce traditional crops, while modifying their techniques to incorporate agroecological experiences from other communities, diversifying output and protecting the environment. Recently, they are enriching this local practice with a systematisation of their inherited traditions and cosmologies, creating effective models of social, political and environmental organisation that lend authority to their claims to be able to manage their territories autonomously. There is a growing body of scientific literature that substantiates this capacity, demonstrating that the collective knowledge of the global networks of local communities is more effective in protecting biodiversity and attending to their own basic needs while improving their quality of life than that of societies more fully integrated into the global economy. In conclusion, we describe how these visions are shaping international networks that are defining new channels for collaboration, improving the quality of life, and protecting communities from the continuing incursions of capital.

Alternativas del Sur Global para enfrentar las crisis social y ambiental

Debates en sociología, Dec 11, 2023

Las teorías recibidas de las ciencias sociales sustentan el despliegue de las fuerzas del colonia... more Las teorías recibidas de las ciencias sociales sustentan el despliegue de las fuerzas del colonialismo e imperialismo, así como la consolidación de un «mercado global», dando lugar al etnocidio y devastación ambiental a escala planetaria. En vez de denunciarlas es oportuno ofrecer otro marco analítico para acercarnos a una comprensión de los pueblos que están resistiendo este despojo con visiones «muy otras». Estas sociedades están construyendo formas comunitarias de vida, fincadas en otras cosmogonías, reconociendo lo valioso de las distintas aportaciones de los géneros, la riqueza de las diferencias generacionales, las capacidades de autogobernarse y florecer, la importancia de la colectividad, sin menospreciar el significado de la individualidad para fortalecer la sociedad. Para abordar sus aportaciones, se requiere de una nueva epistemología que hemos formalizado en la Economía Ecológica Radical. Empezamos con La milpa mesoamericana como ejemplo de las profundas diferencias entre los enfoques productivistas y los basados en la íntima relación entre la sociedad y la naturaleza. La comunalidad orienta estrategias deliberadas de forjar solidaridad y bienestar con importantes lazos de apoyo mutuo entre sociedades que están continuamente incorporando innovaciones que les fortalecen, siempre conscientes de la obligación de cuidar sus entornos, diseñando metabolismos socioecológicos apropiados.

Governance from below and environmental justice: Community water management from the perspective of social metabolism

by Mario E . Fuente Carrasco and David Barkin

Ecological Economics, 2019

The Mexican neoliberal political regime created a hegemonic governance model (top-down) which has... more The Mexican neoliberal political regime created a hegemonic governance model (top-down) which has tried to impose a single definition for the rules of the distribution of the costs and benefits (environmental and economic) related to the appropriation of "natural resources" (fossil fuels, forests, mineral, water, genetic). Social metabolism is a framework that highlights the contribution of indigenous communities in their struggles to build a movement of environmental justice and austerity (a regionally sensitive alternative to degrowth). By forging an indigenous communitarian identity, known as comunalidad in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca, they are forging a new form of "bottom-up" governance. We designed key components and indicators to understand the social metabolism related to three policy objectives: a) local governance; b) reducing water vulnerability; and c) social justice. Heterodox perspectives by Marx and Illich enrich the analysis. The analysis emphasizes the importance of the social control of the "tools" needed to protect their communities and their heritage, transforming the institutions that were imposed on them. The approach is critical for constructing a research program in "ecological economics from below."

Building Sustainable Communities in the Global South: The Communitarian Revolutionary Subject

Visions and Strategies for a Sustainable Economy, 2022

This essay addresses some of the underlying causes of the numerous conflicts between indigenous a... more This essay addresses some of the underlying causes of the numerous conflicts between indigenous and peasant communities and the nation-states within which they reside. It gives voice to the actors involved in forging alternatives to the development proposals of the hegemonic forces in the world-system. They are participating in social movements guided by different cosmologies, products of their multiple ethnic origins, and the profound philosophical and epistemological debates of the past half-century. Their organizations are discovering new ways of integrating their belief systems, their cultures and their relationships to their environments to create contrasting models of society, models that directly address the demands for social justice and sustainability while protecting the whole panoply of traits that define a people. They are consciously involved in implementing collective solutions to consolidate their autonomy, improve well-being, and assure responsible environmental management.

Postcolonial and Anti-Systemic Resistance by Indigenous Movements in Mexico

Journal of World-Systems Research, Aug 25, 2022

Indigenous resistance against neoliberalism reveals numerous social transformations and political... more Indigenous resistance against neoliberalism reveals numerous social transformations and political contributions in the context of a postcolonial transition from the world-system. The Mexican indigenous movement, inspired by the Zapatista rebellion, renewed conversations between the country's diverse indigenous peoples but also established new alliances with non-indigenous sectors of national society in defense of the commons and alternative ways of life to the civilizational order of capital. The radicalism, led by the indigenous peoples in their process of transformation into a social subject deploys new forms of collective action that break with the ideological discourses and narratives of modernity. As in other parts of the global South, communities in Mexico are actively engaged in consolidating their ability to govern themselves, through strategies of autonomy and self-determination, providing a wide variety of services to improve the quality of life of their members, diversifying their productive base and renewing their cultural heritage, while defending and caring for their territories. The indigenous movement is currently experiencing a conceptual and discursive renewal that inverts the assimilationist thesis implicit in the slogan of "Never again a Mexico without us," from which their historical exclusion in the project of nation was questioned, to "We, without Mexico" that poses a radical questioning of the worn-out model of the nation-state, which assumes as its main objective to think (and act) beyond the State and capital. As part of international networks and alliances, they are engaged in leaving the world-system.

Cuba 1968 : Supplement to the Statistical Abstract of Latin America. University of California at Los Angeles : Latin American Center, 1970

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2018

Reflections on the evolution of the Union of Radical Political Economics and its relation to the ... more

La estrategia cubana de desarrollo

Foro internacional, Oct 1, 1971

... perfectamente la decepci?n cubana sobre la estructura econ?mica existente as? como el deseo d... more

Bottom-up approaches

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Approaches in ecological economics that involve placing "people" first. They center their analysi... more Approaches in ecological economics that involve placing "people" first. They center their analysis and policy on the goals and dynamics of the communities and their institutions; they focus on local initiatives to implement change. These approaches are generally specific to each social group, incorporating important elements of the cultural and political heritage that defines the way in which communities define and resolve the challenges they face. They are often an integral part of efforts to resolve distributional conflicts among competing world visions. Because of this geographic and cultural specificity, these approaches are often limited to case studies of particular problems. Bottom-up approaches, however, are central to community efforts to assert their autonomy, their ability to govern themselves democratically. Their significance for ecological economics lies in the power that these approaches offer for building political alliances among social groups to confront common problems or institutions at a regional, national, and international level. Their relevance is particularly significant in environmental management. The value of local knowledge is paramount for conserving and promoting biodiversity. For this reason, the application of the lessons from traditional farming systems to increase food self-sufficiency have been strengthened by the new-found interest in creating varieties of agroecology suited to local conditions, both environmental and economic. The world's largest social organization, La Vía Campesina, with member organizations in 83 countries, brings together more than 200 million people who practice bottom-up approaches to promote food sovereignty, as an alternative to industrial agri-food systems m the international marketplace.

Indigenous knowledge

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Knowledge that combines the accumulated wisdom of generations that have integrated their understa... more Knowledge that combines the accumulated wisdom of generations that have integrated their understandings of the way in which societies interact with their surroundings and an inherited cosmogony. Useful innovations are increasingly incorporated into these systems. Indigenous knowledge is increasingly recognized as crucial for conservation and planetary stewardship. The long histories of indigenous peoples and local communities' placebased living and time-honored traditions generated intricate and complex systems of knowledge about the world around them. Indigenous peoples number hundreds of millions worldwide and occupy more than one-quarter of the globe. They are generally organized into communities with common cultural and linguistic roots; their diversity creates multiple ways of valuing nature. Sometimes their relationships with the nation-states within which they live are codified in treaties with the colonial powers that invaded their territories, allowing them to transform this accumulated wisdom into autonomous institutions for governing themselves, for attempting to provide for their needs, and for caring for their territories.

Noam Chomsky. La responsabilidad de los intelectuales. Barcelona : Ariel, 1969. (Ariel Quincenal)

Foro internacional, Apr 1, 1971

Top-down approaches

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Radical ecological economics

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Social metabolism

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023

Proyección de la demanda de médicos en México : 1965-1980

Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos, May 1, 1971

Viviendo el pacto fáustico.La resiliencia perversa frente al cambio climático

Veredas: Revista del Pensamiento Sociológico, Jan 31, 2014

* El pacto fáustico refiere a un "pacto con el demonio" en la leyenda clásica alemana de Fausto, ... more * El pacto fáustico refiere a un "pacto con el demonio" en la leyenda clásica alemana de Fausto, según la cual una persona ofrecería su alma a Mefistófeles a cambio de favores diabólicos poderosos; según Wikipedia, es un referente cultural muy extendido de la cultura "occidental". Fue inmortalizado en la obra poética del mismo nombre de Goethe en 1808-1832 e inspiró la creación de una obertura de Wagner.

Jesús Puente Leyva. Distribución del ingreso en un área urbana : el caso de Monterrey. México : Siglo XXI Editores, 1969. 115 p

Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos, 1969

Globalization: Love It or Leave It

Latin American Perspectives, 2002

Millions of people around the world are defying conventional thinking, often at great risk to the... more Millions of people around the world are defying conventional thinking, often at great risk to themselves and to their communities. Instead of toeing the line of free trade and regional economic integration, they are retreating into more insular patterns to exercise control over the ecosystems that they are called on to husband, to produce more of their own basic needs, and to diversify productively so that they do not have to close themselves off to the world economy. They are actively rejecting the call for a crusade to shape a single international economy, impetuously setting out on a different path to social and cultural diversity and environmental democracy in an attempt to ensure themselves a modicum of security and material well-being. Large contingents of people in the Third World and even in the wealthy countries are actively attempting to construct their own alternatives. They are creating bold new strategies that not only offer greater possibilities for their own satisfaction but also promise to produce a new set of goods and services that will contribute to improving the quality of life for those who have become trapped in the globalized society while helping to ameliorate the environmental crises that threaten us all. Even as the world's leaders bask in the reflected heat of the preachers of globalization, assuring all who will listen of the unlimited benefits of free trade and integration, vast contingents of workers and peasants and even some renegade professionals and intellectuals are obstreperously bursting into the meetings of the rich and powerful, giving voice to their disenchantment. From the perspective of the South, there is a growing understanding of the costs of the new world order for people who have been dismissed by the powers that be. Especially in Mexico-one of the celebrated "heroic participants" cementing the conduits of global interchange-an unexpected groundswell of opposition has produced a remarkable proliferation of alternative strategies.

Corporate nature

Capitalism Nature Socialism, 1999

ABSTRACT

Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies

by Anitra Nelson and David Barkin

The money-based global economy is failing while market-led attempts to combat climate change are ... more The money-based global economy is failing while market-led attempts to combat climate change are fought tooth and nail by business as environmental crises continue.

We urgently need to combat those who say 'there is no alternative' to the current system, but what would an alternative look like? The contributors to Life Without Money argue that it is time radical, non-market models were taken seriously. The book brings together diverse voices presenting strong arguments against our money-based system's ability to improve lives and prevent environmental disaster. Crucially, it provides a direct strategy for undercutting capitalism by refusing to deal in money, and offers money-free models of governance and collective sufficiency.

Life Without Money is written by high-profile activist scholars making it an excellent text for political economy and environmental courses, as well as an inspiring manifesto for those who want to take action.