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This critical commentary discusses Stephan Lessenich's recent work on democracy. It argues that—to understand the structural boundaries of welfare capitalist democracy—we must critically unearth the limits of liberal democracy. This article first maintains that the absence of an economic democratization dimension is an outcome of liberal democracy's shrinking of the meaning of the political. It next claims that defining democracy in terms of rights does not duly consider how these unfolded historically and recently, nor clarifies their relation with negative freedom. The article then contends that the environmentally destructive dialectic of democracy and the belittlement of reproductive work stem from the constitution of a narrowly defined economic sphere, from which "reproductive activities" are excluded. Finally, the text reflects on what "democratizing democracy" should entail.

Under regimes of austerity, social movements' transformative eco-politics may appear endangered. What kinds of environmentalism and radical imaginaries can unfold in social movements in crisis-ridden societies? I focus on the 'move-ment of the squares' during its post-encampment phase, with a case study of three urban projects of the Indignados movement in Barcelona. Observation of these projects reveals the importance of three common and intertwined radical imaginaries embodied in participants' social practices and orienting their future visions: the commons, autonomy, and ecologism. The ecologism imaginary cannot be properly understood if disembedded from the other two: the 'Indignant' projects constitute community structures re-embedding (re)produc-tion, jointly covering and generating needs differently, in response to the global capitalist forces that are threatening their social reproduction. Eco-politics can only be plausibly transformative if it is able to articulate a politics of intersec-tionality linking social reproduction with ecological interconnectedness and struggles against dispossessions and social injustice.

A wealth of social innovations sprang up in recent years in Southern Europe in the bosom of urban movements to cover citizens´ needs from below. Reacting to the commodification of the neoliberal city and the increasing dismantling of the welfare state, they provide public services and interrelate in var-ious forms with state authorities. Drawing on the outstanding social innovation case of Can Batlló (CB) in the city of Barcelona, a 14-ha former factory including more than 30 different projects and involving more than 350 activists, this paper analyses how social movements are redefining "the public" in the articulation between institutionalization, public service co-production, disruptive repertoires of action, and autonomy. It argues that this multiplicity of strategies and the strength of the movement helped not only to avoid turning the CB social innovation into a neoliberal rollout strategy, but even to act as a safety cordon against austerity politics. Affecting the boundaries of the legal-institutional framework, and rejecting the conflation of "public goods" with "state goods", CB organizes public services provision and planning in a more democratic form, pressuring the government to deliver the promised public services, while reclaim-ing them as commons that activists contribute building and designing. CB´s movement dimension and rootedness in the neighbourhood ensure the prioritisation of public and neighbourhood concerns over short-term, particularistic, and organizational survival interests.

Esta tesis es un estudio longitudinal en profundidad del movimiento de los Indignados en Barcelona, desde el inicio de los campamentos en Plaza Catalunya hasta las numerosas asambleas de barrio, comisiones, y la emergencia de proyectos teritoriales. Durante tres años fueron conducidas 74 entrevistas en profundidad y 6 grupos focales con los participantes del movimiento, mientras se emprendieron aproximadamente 600 horas de observación participante. La tesis investiga la ecología politica del movimiento de los Indignados, concretamente pretende comprender las maneras en las que el movimiento ha entendido la crisis ecologica-economica, y las nuevas ideas y procesos socio-politicos y transformaciones socio-ecologicas que puso en marcha. La ecología politica en esta tesis se entiende en su más sentido amplio, como las nuevas relaciones y realidades socio-naturales que el movimiento ha generado, tanto cognitivamente como materialmente, mientras imaginaba y ejecutaba un orden socio-ecologico alternativo. Si una transformación socio-ecologica va a tener lugar, ésta será el resultado de procesos políticos democráticos en la que los movimientos sociales juegan un papel fundamental. Los movimientos sociales son un actor importante del cambio social, ya que contribuyen a la innovación cultural y empiezan la transformación institucional. Así pues, esta tesis considera la posibilidad de una transformación socio-ecológica a través de la perspectiva del movimiento de los Indignados. En particular aborda la teoría del decrecimiento que se puede describir como la visión de la reducción democrática y redistributiva de la producción y consumo en los países industrializados. Esta investigación avanza la teoría del decrecimiento conectándola con las teorías políticas sobre democracia, y aprendiendo de un caso de estudio empírico, el movimiento de los Indignados, centrado en la demanda de una 'democracia real'. El primer capítulo presenta un marco teórico multidisciplinar que incluye las teorías de decrecimiento, democracia, ecología ...

This paper investigates how the prefiguration of an alternative future by social movements produces new space through a processual dynamic. A case study of the Indignados movement in Barcelona shows how mobilizations evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city in the post-encampment period. In the alternative projects forged during the post-square period, activists re-appropriated urban spaces and transformed them, wanting to live differently and to produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as 'prefigurative territories', integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist-inspired theory of prefiguration with Lefebvre's Marxist theory of space production. This integration helps to capture how participants strategized the type of evolution of the movement after the square as well as the type of space being produced. While the square's encampment was a détournement of a capitalist space with limited spatial creativeness, in post-square counter-spaces the prefiguration of a different society takes an offensive stance, setting concrete objectives to counter-plan the state's organization of space. Counter-spaces arise through a dialectical movement that preserves the first two dimensions of prefiguration, a consistency between means and ends and a proleptic foretaste of the future society, that realize and become the third dimension of created alternatives. This dialectical movement unfolds through three processes: experimentation, demonstration, and proliferation through 'open prefiguration'. Prefigurative territories, we argue, signal strategic horizons, but members struggle with conflicts when opening up.

International audience ; This contribution advances a theoretical-methodological proposal for the study of ecological prefiguration, which is a form of environmental activism inspired by ecologism and characterized by an interstitial vision of social change conducive to the creation of alternative, socially and ecologically sustainable local economies. After a discussion of the current approaches to ecological prefiguration as «ecotopia» and «new environmentalism of everyday life», the article introduces an "ontological politics" perspective, centered upon, on the one hand, the analysis of the alternative value practices "performed" in prefigurative initiatives and, on the other hand, the imaginaries that relate them to a vision of ecological society. The focus on the ontological dimension shows that what is at stake in ecological prefiguration is not so much the realization of an anticipated future in the present but rather the disclosure of a potential of ontological alternative that is already inherent in the present, and whose activation allows to open a space for the radical imagination of the future. At the same time, as we discuss starting from the case of the "ecotopian" movement of permaculture, this perspective provides some interpretative keys to understand the different "transgressive" potential of ecological prefiguration initiatives. ; L'articolo avanza una proposta teorico-metodologica per lo studio della prefigurazione ecologica, cioè quel tipo di attivismo ambientalista ispirato dall'ecologismo e caratterizzato da una visione interstiziale del cambiamento sociale, che si concretizza nella creazione di economie locali alternative, socialmente ed ecologicamente sostenibili. Dopo una discussione dei principali approcci alla prefigurazione ecologica come «ecotopia» e come «nuovo ambientalismo del quotidiano», l'articolo presenta una prospettiva di "politica ontologica", incentrata, da un lato, sull'analisi delle pratiche alternative del valore "performate" nelle iniziative di prefigurazione ...

International audience ; This contribution advances a theoretical-methodological proposal for the study of ecological prefiguration, which is a form of environmental activism inspired by ecologism and characterized by an interstitial vision of social change conducive to the creation of alternative, socially and ecologically sustainable local economies. After a discussion of the current approaches to ecological prefiguration as «ecotopia» and «new environmentalism of everyday life», the article introduces an "ontological politics" perspective, centered upon, on the one hand, the analysis of the alternative value practices "performed" in prefigurative initiatives and, on the other hand, the imaginaries that relate them to a vision of ecological society. The focus on the ontological dimension shows that what is at stake in ecological prefiguration is not so much the realization of an anticipated future in the present but rather the disclosure of a potential of ontological alternative that is already inherent in the present, and whose activation allows to open a space for the radical imagination of the future. At the same time, as we discuss starting from the case of the "ecotopian" movement of permaculture, this perspective provides some interpretative keys to understand the different "transgressive" potential of ecological prefiguration initiatives. ; L'articolo avanza una proposta teorico-metodologica per lo studio della prefigurazione ecologica, cioè quel tipo di attivismo ambientalista ispirato dall'ecologismo e caratterizzato da una visione interstiziale del cambiamento sociale, che si concretizza nella creazione di economie locali alternative, socialmente ed ecologicamente sostenibili. Dopo una discussione dei principali approcci alla prefigurazione ecologica come «ecotopia» e come «nuovo ambientalismo del quotidiano», l'articolo presenta una prospettiva di "politica ontologica", incentrata, da un lato, sull'analisi delle pratiche alternative del valore "performate" nelle iniziative di prefigurazione ...

The commentary critically addresses Emanuele Leonardi's arguments as exposed in Lavoro Natura Valore –André Gorz tra marxismo e decrescita (Orthotes, 2017). In particular, it focuses on the role of sense-making in the critique of capitalism, on the notion of negentropic labor and on the link between collective desirability and social metabolism

International audience ; The commentary critically addresses Emanuele Leonardi's arguments as exposed in Lavoro Natura Valore-André Gorz tra marxismo e decrescita (Orthotes, 2017). In particular, it focuses on the role of sense-making in the critique of capitalism, on the notion of negentropic labor and on the link between collective desirability and social metabolism.

Front Matter -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction: what is critical environmental politics? -- PART I THEORETICAL STRANDS -- 1. Critical theory: praxis and emancipation beyond the mastery of nature -- 2. Decolonial ecologies: beyond environmentalism -- 3. Feminisms and the environment -- 4. Marxism and ecology: an ongoing debate -- PART II CONTESTED NOTIONS -- 5. Anthropocene -- 6. Buen Vivir -- 7. Degrowth -- 8. Limits -- 9. Sustainability: buying time for consumer capitalism -- PART III KEY ISSUES -- 10. Agrarian development and food security: ecology, labour and crises -- 11. Bioeconomies -- 12. Cities and the environment -- 13. Climate justice and global politics -- 14. The Common(s) -- 15. The cultural political economy of research and innovation: meeting the problem of growth in the Anthropocene -- 16. Disasters and catastrophes -- 17. Energy politics and energy transition -- 18. Expertise, lay/local knowledge and the environment -- 19. Extractivism and neo-extractivism -- 20. Religion and ecology -- 21. Social metabolism -- 22. Technological fixes: nonknowledge transfer and the risk of ignorance -- 23. The values of Nature -- PART IV GOVERNANCE -- 24. Democracy and democratisation -- 25. Environmental violence -- 26. Environment-related human mobility -- 27. Financialisation of nature -- 28. Fossil fuels and state-industry relations: a case study in environmental non-compliance -- 29. Global environmental governance and the state -- 30. Just transition: a conflict transformation approach -- 31. Sustainable welfare: urban areas and transformational action -- PART V MOBILIZATIONS -- 32. Climate change consensus: a depoliticized deadlock -- 33. Ecological mobilizations in the Global South -- 34. Engaging the everyday: sustainability, practices, politics -- 35. Environmental movements.

There is overwhelming evidence that one of the most important challenges facing society today is the growing scale and unequal distribution of consumption of natural resources. Both the socio-economic implications of resource scarcities and the documented decline in provision of and rising threats to ecosystem services have spurred parts of the academic and policy communities into identification of problems and solutions. Some of the most fundamental debates, led by researchers from various disciplines, centre around economic growth and sustainable consumption. However, there is often a lack of knowledge exchange between these researchers as well as between researchers and policy makers. Together with other factors this results in slow policy progress. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the dialogue and understanding between sustainability science and policy by identifying a set of important research questions that link the challenges of sustainable consumption with economic growth debates and critiques. The research questions have been identified through an extensive participatory process involving leading researchers and policy makers responsible for sustainability policies throughout the whole EU and cover five areas (food, housing, mobility, information and communication technology, finance). The aim of the research questions is to orient researchers towards important research priorities as well as guide policy makers and public authorities in funding of research and use of sound scientific evidence and policy advice to inform decision making. We anticipate that addressing these questions will contribute to rethinking of societal institutions and forms of consumption in order to transition towards sustainability, while improving the synergy between policy and sustainability science. This paper presents some results of the RESPONDER project, Linking Research and Policy Making for Managing the Contradictions of Sustainable Consumption and Economic Growth, funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme, 2011–2014.

The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capitalist societies as a heuristic for discussing the expansionary dynamics, power relations, and lock-ins of modern societies that impel highly unsustainable societal relations with nature. While formulating societal boundaries implies a controversial process ‒ based on normative judgments, ethical concerns, and socio-political struggles ‒ it has the potential to offer guidelines for a just, social-ecological transformation. Collective autonomy and the politics of self-limitation are key elements of societal boundaries and are linked to important proposals and pluriverse experiences to integrate well-being and boundaries. The role of the state and propositions for radical alternative approaches to well-being have particular importance. We conclude with reflections on social freedom, defined as the right not to live at others' expense. Toward the aim of defining boundaries through transdisciplinary and democratic processes, we seek to open a dialogue on these issues.