Embodying Alternatives to Capitalism in the 21st Century

Abstract

Abstract:The goal of this article is twofold. First, to illustrate how in the last decade a growing number of critical and Marxist thinkers committed to discussing and developing theories of change have started to broaden their focus by including social movements and grassroots initiatives that are "interstitial", i.e. initiatives that are developing within capitalism and are striving to prefigure a post-capitalist society in the here and now without engaging in contentious, violent and revolutionary actions and activities. To achieve this, I mainly focus on the work of four authors: Erik Olin Wright, John Holloway, Ana C. Dinerstein, and Luke Martell. The second goal of this article is to understand why these interstitial movements are getting so much attention from critical scholars and to argue that the time is ripe for establishing a theory of (and for) prefigurative social movements. The article closes with some brief reflections on the future of radical thinking that includes an invitation, directed mostly at the young generation of critical and Marxist scholars, to begin a dialogue with theories of change developed within other disciplines, to engage with activists, and to experiment with participatory methods and techniques.

Crisis, transformation, and agency: Why are people going back-to-the-land in Greece?

“…Social movement studies examine the external agency of more marginalized actors by focusing on the everyday actions of collectives involved in the creation of spaces—often found at the interstices of mainstream society—where new forms of social (and ecological) relations can be experimented with in hopes of creating a new world; what has been called prefigurative politics (Gibson-Graham 2006 , 2008 ; Leach 2013 ; Yates 2015 ). The literature on prefigurative politics has put considerable weight on discussing the effectiveness of these experiments for broader social change, emphasizing the tensions and paradoxes involved when navigating efforts to create new ways of being and doing (without radical revolutionary action) while also existing within a mainstream capitalistic system that still structure most of people’s lives (Monticelli 2018 ; Yates 2020 ; Törnberg 2021 ). While less studied, prefigurative politics also touch upon the interplay between internal and external agency since most of these struggles relate to the attempts of individuals to recreate new values, identities and beliefs—how they make sense of the world around them—usually through engagement in collective action (Trott 2016 ).…”

Politicisation beyond post-politics: new social activism and the reconfiguration of political discourse

“…Not only would the protected space of local experimentalism allow for the emergence of authentic forms of autonomy and collectivity, but it would also generate micro-solutions to global problems that might subsequently be replicated and diffused into the society at large, thereby subverting the hegemony of market liberalism and technocratic eco-governance. The politicising power of prefiguration, then, lies in embodying the dissent against the capitalist organisation of social space and technocratic forms of government, in materialising an equitable, ecological and solidary alternative, and in diffusing these alternative practices into the broader cultural and institutional landscape (Monticelli, 2018;Schlosberg & Craven, 2019). From this perspective, also highlighted by Deflorian in this special issue, what collective everyday activism is bringing to the fore is the contingent character of the established societal order and the fact that the latter is, and always will be, constructed and contestable (Kenis, 2019).…”

The Collaborative Management of Sustained Unsustainability: On the Performance of Participatory Forms of Environmental Governance

“…Indeed, this prefigurative aspect is central to the transformative potential of civil society-driven initiatives. As the hegemony of market-liberal thinking renders it ever more difficult to even envisage any alternative to the consumer capitalist order of unsustainability, these niche movements help not only to imagine but actually experience alternative practices and socio-ecological relations [81][82][83].…”