Inspiration

Çatalhöyük

Who will Guard the Guardians: Direct Democracy as Suspicion of Authority

Towards Autonomy

There no longer are any checks on political life, no sanctions beyond those of the penal code, which, as various “affairs” have shown, functions less and less. At any rate, in such a situation the question is posed, as it always has been: “And why the devil would judge themselves, or their ‘overseers,’ be exempt from the general corruption, and for how long? Who will guard the guardians?” [1]~Cornelius Castoriadis For a long time there has been this persistent and deeply entrenched idea that direct democracy, or popular self-management, is impossible to attain on society-wide scale because people are not good enough. One of the earlier expressions of this argument can be found in the works of great Swiss thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He suggests, in his magnum opus The Social Contract, that “were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men”. Although he...

  • February 2, 2023
Xingu Seed Network

Amazon’s least-deforested areas are due to ‘vital role’ of Indigenous peoples

Carbon Brief

Only 5% of net forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon occurs in Indigenous territories and protected areas – even though these areas contain more than half of the region’s forest. That is a key finding from a recent study, published in Nature Sustainability, which looks at data over the period 2000 to 2021. It analyses satellite images to estimate annual forest area and then overlays that information with national datasets on different governance and management systems. The findings reveal the “vital role” of Indigenous territories and protected areas in forest conservation in the Amazon, the authors write. However, over 2018-21, the percentage of annual forest loss in those areas was twice as large as the one in non-designated areas, the study finds. The authors warn that this change highlights the effect of the “weakening” of environmental protections under former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The great Amazon The Amazon is the largest...

  • February 2, 2023
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chevron sponsorship

How the Fossil Fuel Industry Buys Goodwill

By Stella Levantesi, DeSmog Blog

From the world’s biggest soccer championship to soccer training for kids, from major universities to music festivals and art galleries — if you can name it, fossil fuel companies have probably sponsored it.

  • February 2, 2023
Old map of Utrecht

Binna Choi of the Casco Art Institute: Curating Art through Commoning

By David Bollier, David Bollier blog

Choi has brought the ethic and practices of commoning to the creation of art and its exhibition. She and her colleagues have embraced commoning as an organizing principle for how a diverse team of artists can make art and work together.

  • February 1, 2023
Lakenfelder cows

Sustainability can (and must) be beautiful

By Sandra Lubarsky, Resilience.org

To fulfill the vision that sets the practice of sustainability in motion—the vision of life coordinating with life in ways that ensure the flourishing of life—ethics and aesthetics must be reintegrated.

  • February 1, 2023
school strike

What determines the success of movements today?

By Cathy Rogers, Waging Non-Violence

Building on the recommendations of other movement strategists, new research from the Social Change Lab offers key insights into the factors that lead to protest wins.

  • January 31, 2023
urban meadow

Urban ‘Microrewilding’ Projects Provide a Lifeline for Nature

By Natasha Khullar Relph, The Revelator

Until now rewilding, which is by its very nature a large-scale effort, has been concentrated in the countryside and rural areas. More recently, however, there have been a number of projects and local movements pushing for more urban rewilding and at a smaller scale.

  • January 31, 2023
Swedish food project networking

The Good Work In Urban-Rural

By John Thackara, John Thackara blog

A new course in Sweden poses the question, “what will a self-sufficient Hällefors Municipality taste like in 2030?” Students on the course act like talent scouts. They search for unrealised food-growing potential across the region – people, unused land, forgotten traditions.

  • January 31, 2023
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