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Bookchin's "The Ecology of Freedom" is half off at @AKPressDistro right now. Not a beginner book if new to social ecology, but I truly feel it is the best blueprint for a 21st century politics & praxis rooted in Green values. https://www.akpress.org/ecologyoffreedom.html
If you're not familiar with Bookchin or his social ecology work, you might start with the short essay "What is Social Ecology?" which highlights some of the basic points that he investigated & developed over his life. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-what-is-social-ecology-1 2/
A brief overview: social ecology is the political philosophy based on the understanding that our ecological crisis is deeply rooted in social crisis. We'll never fix the climate & ecology without first addressing social ills resulting from exploitation & oppression. 3/
Social exploitation and oppression comes from many forms. Most common today is capitalism, which is at this point far from merely an economic system but in fact an entire societal/cultural system built on oppression. More generally, exploitation comes from hierarchies. 4/
Social ecology attempts to answer many questions about the relationship between society and nature.
- What is "human nature"?
- How did hierarchy & capitalism develop historically?
- Can we evolve beyond hierarchy to live in harmony with other humans & all nature? If so, how? 5/
- What is "human nature"?
- How did hierarchy & capitalism develop historically?
- Can we evolve beyond hierarchy to live in harmony with other humans & all nature? If so, how? 5/
Bookchin sought to answer these & related questions not merely with abstract philosophical speculation but by better understanding nature and society. Social ecology as a result draws from many fields: biology, physics, paleontology, anthropology, sociology, history, & more. 6/
Social ecology essentially concludes that nature & evolutionary processes greatly prefer social structures: cooperation, mutual aid, solidarity, diversity. This is what helps species survive and what creates resilient flourishing ecosystems. 7/
By extension, these principles also create strong societies. Historically humans survived & thrived with egalitarianism, cooperation, mutual aid, solidarity, diversity (of genetics, cultures, languages, etc.). 8/
Hierarchy & later capitalism came about during the transition from early nomadic humans to "civilized" city-dwelling humans. Lack of understanding of nature created superstitions & rituals in cities that eventually led to mysticism, religion, royalty, and authoritarianism. 9/
However by all evidence, such hierarchical thinking is NOT "human nature" and is not a given or an inevitability. Humans have the potential to become much more than this, by using our increased knowledge about the world together with an ecological ethics to evolve society. 10/
This is where Bookchin's social ecology praxis comes in -- he called it "libertarian municipalism". To create an ecological society, we need to regain ethics of mutual aid & cooperation, and rebel against hierarchy -- which is best done via local community organizing. 11/
Specifically, the State (nation-state like governments) is intertwined with authoritarianism, capitalism, & hierarchy, so we must ultimately rebel against the State itself if we are to truly create an ecological, free society. This best happens at the municipal (city) level. 12/
Why? Cities/regions are what provide the food and supplies necessary for survival, not nation-states. Cities can be small enough to eliminate hierarchy by practicing direct democracy & consensus building approaches, and big enough to provide for people. 13/
As cities organize around concepts like mutual aid and cooperation, the city increasingly builds power outside of the State. As more cities do this, those cities can create confederations of cities to build even more regional power, until strong enough to challenge the State. 14/
At some point, the directly-democratic cities practicing mutual aid & community self-defense become the legitimate power for society -- NOT the nation-state and its corporate aristocracy. A new democratic ecological society is then born out of the old State. 15/
To make this happen, Bookchin encouraged the development of mutual aid and new democratic community institutions. Some amount of electoralism could be part of this plan, but largely at the municipal levels to build new institutions, not run for state/federal offices. 16/
This is a very very short summary. As you can imagine there's a lot more detail and nuance here (please don't assume any single tweet in this thread completely accurately summarizes social ecology! I've likely sacrificed some accuracy for brevity) 17/
But if you found this thread to hold some intriguing ideas, you'll want to learn more! I recommended an intro essay at the top of this thread, but a more intro level book might be Bookchin's "Remaking Society" https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-remaking-society
Bookchin's "The Next Revolution" is a pretty good book describing in more detail libertarian municipalism and what he means by "direct democracy". https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-ursula-k-le-guin-the-next-revolution
"Post-Scarcity Anarchism" is another great read for more of his ecological ideas, including an essay entitled "Listen Marxist!" that I got a kick out of for describing how Marxism fails to properly identify an ecological path forward. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-post-scarcity-anarchism-1
