Ecosocialism from a Post-Development Perspective

Abstract

The dominant current in anti-capitalist critiques is socialism, which flowered in the twenty-first century in ecosocialist thought and practice. Ecosocialism has been challenged by anti-capitalist resistance in the Majority World to embrace post-development perspectives and post-capitalist futures. Post-development engages with paradigms of post-growth, post-patriarchal, and post-capitalist futures, co-constructing a praxis in which security of basic needs for all, horizontal governance, and social solidarity are key. A comparison of three works—the 2001 ‘Ecosocialist Manifesto’, the 2008 ‘Belem Ecosocialist Declaration’, and the 2017 ‘Combined Strategy and Plan of Action of the First Ecosocialist International’—shows that ecosocialism embraces diverse visions, from state-oriented and market-regulating plans for transformation to grassroots community-based modes of production envisaged as, ultimately, networked across a pluriverse globe. In the latter the market, money, and state evaporate as commoning and co-governance allow direct deliberations over the quality, quantity, and forms of meeting collective sufficiency locally.

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