Title: Concepts for a Democratic and Ecological Society
Author: Yavor Tarinski
Pages: 100
Publisher: Zer0 Books
Year: 2022
About the book:
Yavor Tarinski examines the fundamental conflict between democratic aspirations and the imposed norms of capitalism, the potential for directly democratic and ecologically designed cities, the imperative to renew the commons, and the prospects for a genuine solidarity economy to overturn the ravages of capitalist economic growth. It critiques bureaucratic, technocratic and conspiracist tendencies both in mainstream discourse and on the Left, and offers a compelling and uplifting vision of a thoroughly transformed social order.
Endorsements:
In his past writings, the Bulgarian social activist and political researcher Yavor Tarinski has demonstrated a singular talent for explaining concepts in political and social theory in an engaging and highly accessible manner. Now he has put forward a compelling manifesto for radically transforming society toward a non-statist model of ecological direct democracy. This work draws substantially upon Tarinski’s two main influences, the social theorists and critics Cornelius Castoriadis and Murray Bookchin, and also synthesizes ideas from such well-known thinkers as Hannah Arendt, David Graeber, Elinor Ostrom, David Harvey, and a host of other European and international sources.
Tarinski’s text examines the fundamental conflict between democratic aspirations and the imposed norms of capitalism, the potential for directly democratic and ecologically designed cities, the imperative to renew the commons, and the prospects for a genuine solidarity economy to overturn the ravages of capitalist economic growth. He critiques bureaucratic, technocratic, and conspiracist tendencies both in mainstream discourse and on the Left, and offers a compelling and uplifting vision of a thoroughly transformed social order. This book is an important contribution to the expanding international literature in social ecology and democratic theory, and deserves to be read and discussed widely.
~Brian Tokar, author of Towards Climate Justice
Yavor Tarinski’s book gives us a good thrill of citizen empowerment and grassroots resistance. It presents direct democracy as a modern project for a new politics of equality and solidarity. Just what we need today.
~Vincent Gerber, author of Bookchin and Social Ecology: An Intellectual’s Biography
Yavor Tarinski’s Concepts for a Democratic and Ecological Society challenges your mind on the most significant questions such as direct democracy, de-growth, solidarity economy, and libertarian municipalism. This is a necessary revolutionary work which should be in your library to make you think more in depth about your future, about utopias, and ultimately about the perspectives of a democratic and ecological society.
~Emet Değirmenci, author of Women’s Activism in Ecological Transformation
Never has the vital vocabulary of socioeconomic integration and participation been more important. Yavor Tarinski has delivered us from forms of corporate cognitive conscription. Now, superfluous labels fall away. Let us take up appropriate direct action in the historical context of liberation struggles. Authenticity and autonomy arise.
~Mark Mason, international commentator
The last work of Yavor Tarinski, Concepts for a Democratic and Ecological Society,is a great and holistic contribution to the change we urgently need to make in face of the Anthropocene era rooted in statecraft, capitalism, and authoritarianism. Based on the exploration of emancipatory movements of the last decades, from the alter-globalist struggles to recent local practices of resistance and mutual aid from all over the world, Yavor shares through his deep and simple words the meaningful path of social ecology. An invitation to free ourselves in all the fields of life, from democracy and education to the economic relations of domination. Through his accurate analysis of the current global situation based on many references to important intellectual figures like Bookchin, Castoriadis, Henri Lefebvre, etc, he invites us to begin to believe in the “magnificent life, waiting just around the corner”and create it, here and now.
~Magali Fricaudet, member of Institut d’écologie sociale et de communalisme.
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