Transnational Institute of Social Ecology

TRISE 2024 Conference: Keynote speakers

The Transnational Institute of Social Ecology (TRISE) is glad to announce its next conference on 25th – 27th October 2024 in Athens, Greece!

Title: The Politics of Social Ecology: From Theory to Praxis

Context

Contemporary crises are making the struggle against capitalist modernity and its associated forms of domination more urgent than ever. The global rule of capitalism has kept intensifying labor exploitation, social inequalities, and ecological breakdown, pushing human societies and the ecosystem to their limits.

The extinction of species and the ravages of climate change, caused by a socio-economic system based on economic growth and profit, are changing, at an unprecedented pace, the conditions through which the web of life develops and evolves. The Covid-19 pandemic is only the latest manifestation of the devastating consequences of a model of society that sees nature as an enemy to conquer and an object to exploit.

In the meantime, military conflicts have once again engulfed many regions and threaten to lead to a new World War. This comes to remind us that a humanity dominated by nation-states and the profit-motive can never achieve lasting peace. Furthermore, this environment of militarization and insecurity has given a further boost to fascist tendencies worldwide that were already trying to exploit the popular indignation sparked by the 2008 economic crisis.

Yet everywhere in the world, cultures of resistance are emerging. The growing resonance of the struggles for women’s liberation, radical ecology, racial and economic justice and direct democracy testify to the emerging desire for an emancipatory future. The living examples of Zapatistas in Chiapas and the Kurds of Rojava demonstrate what non-capitalist forms of organization can look like thanks to decades of grassroots work.

Citizens are realizing that building another world through collective emancipation is not only desirable and possible, but also necessary. A rising proportion of people see the values of solidarity, mutual aid and harmony with nature as real alternatives to the neoliberal order. A reconciliation of society and nature is essential for the times to come: radical change starts from the understanding that an ecological and democratic society is not an abstract dream but a practical possibility within our reach.

In this context, the ideas of social ecology and Communalism provide a revolutionary agenda proposing a route towards a “communal society oriented towards human needs, responding to ecological imperatives, and developing a new ethics based on sharing and cooperation”. In this historic moment, marked by a deepening of the crisis of capitalism and raising hopes and demands for a better future, these ideas have much to offer to those looking for a utopian vision and a radical path.

Permeated by dialectical naturalism, social ecology presents two important complementary projects that go beyond abstract social theory. On the one hand, it challenges the current capitalist system and all forms of oppression, including racism, ethno-centrism, and patriarchy. On the other hand, it offers a reconstructive and revolutionary vision for an ecological post-scarcity society. Social ecology tackles the current societal struggles that surface in both urban and rural contexts, while addressing central questions about our relationship with nature, science, and technology.

What is more, social ecology suggests how to construct a new society, promoting prefigurative political strategies that include affinity groups and citizen assemblies, the formation of directly-democratic social movements, as well as educational projects. Social ecology provides an ethics of complementarity that lays the foundation of struggles for mutual aid, self-determination, decentralization, gender liberation, horizontalism, and egalitarianism.

In order to achieve this vision of a desirable future, collective answers to multiple challenges need to be explored. From the periphery to the centers of capitalism, these answers take many shapes and forms, illustrating the nature of the movement itself: decentralized, autonomous and evolving. To create successful and long-lasting alternatives, connections between these diverse initiatives need to be developed. Their members need to meet, train, dialogue, share strategies and build networks.

For these purposes, Transnational Institute of Social Ecology (TRISE),  is organizing  its next International Encounter in Athens in October 2024. The Encounter aims to respond to the need to build the movement through a series of activities including presentations and workshops. It will gather citizens, activists, and researchers at the forefront of these multiple struggles for desirable common futures.

Keynote Speakers

We are proud to present the following keynote speakers for the Conference:

Ana Mendez de Andés

Ana Méndez de Andés Aldama is an architect and urban planner graduated by the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (ETSA) in Madrid, Spain, where she also holds a MA in Urban Studies. Ana has worked as an urban and landscape designer in Amsterdam, Madrid and London. She has been teaching at the Universidad Europea in Madrid and visiting faculty at Tongji (Shanghai). Since 2005 she has been engaged in social movements and collective projects related to the social production of territories, the nature of public space, and urban commons’ institutional development, such as urbanacción and Observatorio Metropolitano. Since 2014, Ana has been involved in the municipalist movement in Spain with the explicit goal of building local power through radically democratic, feminist, ecologically resilient, and equitable forms of social organization.

Stavros Stavrides

Stavros Stavrides is Professor of Architectural Design and Theory at The National Technical University of Athens. He is currently the head of NTUA Lab for the Architectural Design and Communication. Until recently he was director of the NTUA postgraduate Program Research in Architecture: Architectural Design – Space – Culture. He has done extensive research fieldwork in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Mexico focused on housing-as-commons and on urban struggles for self-management.He is the author of Common Spaces of Urban Emancipation (2019), Common Space: The City as Commons, (2016), Towards the City of Thresholds (2019) and co-editor with P. Travlou of Housing as Commons (2022).

Natalia Mamonova

Natalia Mamonova is a rural (political) sociologist with over 10 years of research experience in rural politics, agrarian transformation, social movements, food sovereignty and right-wing populism in post-socialist Europe. She received her PhD degree from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University, the Netherlands in 2016. Since then, she was a researcher/lecturer at the University of Oxford, the New Europe College in Bucharest, the University of Helsinki, and the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies. She studies contemporary rural discontent as part of a global “rural awakening” in response to neoliberal changes in the countryside. Natalia’s current research is mainly focused on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Ukrainian and global food systems.

Academy of Democratic Modernity

Academy of Democratic Modernity is a platform of the revolutionary Kurdish freedom movement to share its theory, history, and praxis with internationalists around the world. Starting from the situation of democratic forces, its strategic task is to connect existing struggles and to create networks of exchange and solidarity. Through exchange of experiences and dialogue the Academy wants to create mutual understanding and collective consciousness. In doing so, it aims to overcome ideological divides and bring shared values and interests to the forefront. The Academy wants to create an awareness of the historical and global interconnectedness of all struggles against exploitation and oppression in order to help our struggles worldwide gain new strength.

Floréal M. Romero

Floréal M. Romero is an activist and author. He comes from the Spanish anarchosyndicalist tradition through his father. He adheres to Bookchin’s theses and is considered one of Social Ecology’s main promoters in Spain, but also in France, through meetings, publications and articles. He lives in Andalusia, where he grows avocados and works exclusively with the Associations pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne (AMAP). Floréal is the author of Agir ici et maintenant: Penser l’écologie sociale de Murray Bookchin [Acting here and now: Murray Bookchin’s thinking on social ecology] (2019) and Murray Bookchin et l’écologie sociale libertaire [Murray Bookchin and libertarian social ecology, co-authored with Vincent Gerber] (2019).

Krini Kafiris

Dr. Krini Kafiris is an educator in gender and media related issues, sustainable organising, and cultural studies, a researcher and activist. She focuses on the use of reflective and creative practices, including storytelling and sound, in envisioning and working for post-capitalist futures.  She is also currently writing a book on radio, sound and space during the Greek crisis for Durty Books (Ireland) which explores how occupied Greek state radio (2013-2015) worked to shape the social imaginary, in particular, narratives of the crisis and understandings of public broadcasting. She has developed and executed trainings and workshops for grassroots groups, artists, media professionals, civil servants and UNDP-ACT staff; participated in autonomous feminist groups; activist radio and the solidarity economy in Greece; and taught media/communications at British, Cypriot and Greek universities.

Program

A preliminary version of the complete program of the conference will be published soon.

>> Support the TRISE conference in Athens: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-trise-conference-next-september-in-athens

Participation to the conference as presenter or as participant is FREE.

For any information, please contact info@trise.org