Eco-swaraj: Radical Ecological Democracy Pathways out of Global Crises

Moderator: Vasna Ramasar, Human Ecology, Lund University.

Abstract 

The world faces multiple intersecting crises, including biodiversity loss and climate change, socio-economic inequities, conflicts, human rights violations, and authoritarianism. The necessity to find solutions is urgent. But it is also clear that these do not lie within the same paradigms that have created them, including in the currently dominant model of economic development, or in the structures of patriarchy, statism, capitalism, racism, colonialism and anthropocentrism that underlie it. 

Are there practices, concepts and frameworks that are pathways to a just and equitable future? If yes, what needs to be done to make the transition towards such a future? 

This presentation will look at a Pluriverse of such alternatives, focusing on India but also including some from elsewhere. These include practical, grassroots initiatives such as food sovereignty, decentralized energy security, direct democracy, gender justice, dignified livelihoods in traditional and new sectors, and more. They also include concepts and worldviews that are based on respect for other people and the rest of nature, solidarity, collective spirit and action, rights and responsibilities, autonomy and freedom, gender/sexual justice, and other such values that are a direct contrast to the individualistic, selfish, commodified mindset of today’s dominant system. 

A framework of radical transformation emerging in India called Eco-swaraj, or Radical Ecological Democracy, will be presented in detail. 

About Ashish Kothari:
A founder & ex-member, Kalpavriksh; involved in many people’s movements. Taught, Indian Institute of Public Administration; coordinated India’s National Biodiversity Strategy & Action Plan, served on boards of Greenpeace International & India, ICCA Consortium; judge on International Tribunal on Rights of Nature. Co-founder of Vikalp Sangam, Global Tapestry of Alternatives, & Radical Ecological Democracy. Co-author/co-editor, Churning the Earth, Alternative Futures, and Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary. Fuller profile, books & articles at Ashish Kotharis website.

The talk is organized in collaboration between the Department of Human Geography, Lunds University and the research project “Producing alternative green futures: Exploring interconnections between green transitions and socioeconomic and political organization” , Roskilde University.