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Thesis Chapters by Elvira Wepfer
PhD Thesis 2018, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, 2018
At the northern edge of Greece’s second-largest island Evia, a fluctuating group of people under ... more At the northern edge of Greece’s second-largest island Evia, a fluctuating group of people under the name Free&Real aim to build up a school for self-sufficiency and sustainability. In response to late capitalist relations, which they perceive to be exploitative, depleting, and alienating, they pose their project as a learning ground in which to recreate human-environment relations towards regenerative ends. Their environmental, political-economic, and social critique resonates with contemporary civil society initiatives in Europe and North America, where a growing number of eco-projects propose alternatives to the dominant paradigm of profit through exploitation via holistic and non-harmful socio-environmental relations. My thesis depicts, analyses, and contextualises these endeavours of social change, paying attention to the ways in which Free&Real creatively critique contemporary society from within and against late capitalism. They do so through reconfiguring their ethics and practices that aim to re-establish relations with self and other – both human and non-human. Through this, they aim to create alternative futures within the present through practice, and through this prefiguration to transform the present towards more ecologically ethical practices.
Through six chapters, I follow the group’s aspirations to situate human existence firmly within the natural environment, to transform their selves towards ethical ideals, and to recreate economic relations outside the formal economy. I further trace their grappling with contemporary expressions of modernity, the limits of altruism, and the complexities of authority. As the group occupy themselves with transformative, educational, and outreach goals, they reproduce some of the very epistemologies and relations they attempt to overcome, while at the same time proposing novel readings of and engagements with others. Through this creative remix, Free&Real generate innovative local responses to some of the pressing issues of contemporary times. Examining these, my thesis contributes to discussions of social change, environmentalism, the anthropology of Greece and Europe, and critique of capitalist relations.
Papers by Elvira Wepfer
The overall argument-that an ecological ethics is needed to tackle and overcome today's environme... more The overall argument-that an ecological ethics is needed to tackle and overcome today's environmental challenges, and that this ethics must ground in a spiritual connection to nature while also taking material responsibility that counteracts globalized capitalist consumerism-is sound. I believe this is an important argument that is worth making from different angles, and as such, the theological angle the author chooses adds to an interdisciplinary and important discourse.
Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 [Copyright Statement] i. The author of this thesis (including... more Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 [Copyright Statement] i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright of related rights in it (the "Copyright") and s/he has given the University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the "Intellectual Property") and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for examples graphs and tables ("Reproductions"), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions.
Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the so... more Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the social processes these theories set in motion. Based on ethnographic research with environmentalist activists in Greece, I argue that their engagement with conspiracy theories constitutes a kind of debunking that is both conceptual and relational. Specifically, the article traces four qualities of engagement with conspiracy theories in the Greek environmentalist scene: the conceptual opposition of structure with agency, the implementation of agency through personal development, the shift of significance from geopolitical power to environmental concerns, and finally the tackling of existing power structures through consequential ecological ethics. The core of this ethics is responsibility, and as such provides a valuable sign-post for the question this Special Issue poses. I argue that academic responsibility lies first and foremost in the pursuit of relationality. As science is increasingl...
Journal for Cultural Research, 2021
Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the s... more Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the social processes these theories set in
motion. Based on ethnographic research with environmentalist activists in Greece, I argue that their engagement with conspiracy theories constitutes a kind of debunking that is both conceptual and
relational. Specifically, the article traces four qualities of engagement
with conspiracy theories in the Greek environmentalist scene: the
conceptual opposition of structure with agency, the implementation
of agency through personal development, the shift of significance
from geopolitical power to environmental concerns, and finally the
tackling of existing power structures through consequential ecological ethics. The core of this ethics is responsibility, and as such provides a valuable sign-post for the question this Special Issue poses.
I argue that academic responsibility lies first and foremost in the
pursuit of relationality. As science is increasingly used to serve political-economic knowledge authority and civil society truth trajectories, an ecological ethics based on relationality renews empiricist
realism and thus debunks reifying power structures.
https://lettersfromirene.home.blog/, 2019
Book Reviews by Elvira Wepfer
libcom.org https://libcom.org/library/book-review-enlightenment-ecology-legacy-murray-bookchin-21st-century, 2021
Murray Bookchin's (1921-2006) anti-capitalist thinking combined community, direct democracy and e... more Murray Bookchin's (1921-2006) anti-capitalist thinking combined community, direct democracy and ecology into a radical political theory he called social ecology. Throughout the 20th century it stood alongside growing arguments for eco-social change and influenced leftist discourses on citizenship, domination and freedom. In the new millennium, it has formed the basis of the Kurdish feminist-ecological revolution in Rojava and thus been implemented for the first time in practice. The edited volume Enlightenment and Ecology. The Legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21st Century celebrates Bookchin's legacy and considers the lived experiences of social ecology. The anthology is a heartfelt endeavour to point out the urgency, potential and possibility for social change that grounds in the collaborative world-making of ecosystems to create free democratic societies that gain their resilience through a unity in diversity. The activists, thinkers and scholars writing place their contributions in political and economic theory, in decades of social engagement and in co-creation and observation of real-life movements. The outcome is a multifaceted anthology whose engaged voices paint a vivid, dialectical picture of the challenges and hopes of creating practice out of theory.
Trise Transnational Institute for Social Ecology, 2020
Book Review of Social Ecology and the Right to the City, University of Chicago Press. Published i... more Book Review of Social Ecology and the Right to the City, University of Chicago Press.
Published in 2019, the edited volume Social Ecology and the Right to the City grew out of a conference two years prior, organised by TRISE. The Transnational Institute of Social Ecology is an association of Europe-based activists and intellectuals who foster, develop and promote the analysis and practices of social ecology. First conceptualized by Murray Bookchin, social ecology combines anarchist claims to a self-determined life with socialist insistence on communal social structures, and positions these within a framework of eco-systemic sustainability. It thus constitutes one of the most holistic and solution-focussed social theories to face today’s convergence of environmental, social and political troubles. This review presents the volume that grew out of TRISE’s 2017 conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, and proposes further trajectories for the study and implementation of social ecology.
PhD Thesis 2018, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, 2018
At the northern edge of Greece’s second-largest island Evia, a fluctuating group of people under ... more At the northern edge of Greece’s second-largest island Evia, a fluctuating group of people under the name Free&Real aim to build up a school for self-sufficiency and sustainability. In response to late capitalist relations, which they perceive to be exploitative, depleting, and alienating, they pose their project as a learning ground in which to recreate human-environment relations towards regenerative ends. Their environmental, political-economic, and social critique resonates with contemporary civil society initiatives in Europe and North America, where a growing number of eco-projects propose alternatives to the dominant paradigm of profit through exploitation via holistic and non-harmful socio-environmental relations. My thesis depicts, analyses, and contextualises these endeavours of social change, paying attention to the ways in which Free&Real creatively critique contemporary society from within and against late capitalism. They do so through reconfiguring their ethics and practices that aim to re-establish relations with self and other – both human and non-human. Through this, they aim to create alternative futures within the present through practice, and through this prefiguration to transform the present towards more ecologically ethical practices.
Through six chapters, I follow the group’s aspirations to situate human existence firmly within the natural environment, to transform their selves towards ethical ideals, and to recreate economic relations outside the formal economy. I further trace their grappling with contemporary expressions of modernity, the limits of altruism, and the complexities of authority. As the group occupy themselves with transformative, educational, and outreach goals, they reproduce some of the very epistemologies and relations they attempt to overcome, while at the same time proposing novel readings of and engagements with others. Through this creative remix, Free&Real generate innovative local responses to some of the pressing issues of contemporary times. Examining these, my thesis contributes to discussions of social change, environmentalism, the anthropology of Greece and Europe, and critique of capitalist relations.
The overall argument-that an ecological ethics is needed to tackle and overcome today's environme... more The overall argument-that an ecological ethics is needed to tackle and overcome today's environmental challenges, and that this ethics must ground in a spiritual connection to nature while also taking material responsibility that counteracts globalized capitalist consumerism-is sound. I believe this is an important argument that is worth making from different angles, and as such, the theological angle the author chooses adds to an interdisciplinary and important discourse.
Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 [Copyright Statement] i. The author of this thesis (including... more Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 [Copyright Statement] i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright of related rights in it (the "Copyright") and s/he has given the University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the "Intellectual Property") and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for examples graphs and tables ("Reproductions"), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions.
Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the so... more Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the social processes these theories set in motion. Based on ethnographic research with environmentalist activists in Greece, I argue that their engagement with conspiracy theories constitutes a kind of debunking that is both conceptual and relational. Specifically, the article traces four qualities of engagement with conspiracy theories in the Greek environmentalist scene: the conceptual opposition of structure with agency, the implementation of agency through personal development, the shift of significance from geopolitical power to environmental concerns, and finally the tackling of existing power structures through consequential ecological ethics. The core of this ethics is responsibility, and as such provides a valuable sign-post for the question this Special Issue poses. I argue that academic responsibility lies first and foremost in the pursuit of relationality. As science is increasingl...
Journal for Cultural Research, 2021
Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the s... more Whether scholars have the academic responsibility to debunk conspiracy theories depends on the social processes these theories set in
motion. Based on ethnographic research with environmentalist activists in Greece, I argue that their engagement with conspiracy theories constitutes a kind of debunking that is both conceptual and
relational. Specifically, the article traces four qualities of engagement
with conspiracy theories in the Greek environmentalist scene: the
conceptual opposition of structure with agency, the implementation
of agency through personal development, the shift of significance
from geopolitical power to environmental concerns, and finally the
tackling of existing power structures through consequential ecological ethics. The core of this ethics is responsibility, and as such provides a valuable sign-post for the question this Special Issue poses.
I argue that academic responsibility lies first and foremost in the
pursuit of relationality. As science is increasingly used to serve political-economic knowledge authority and civil society truth trajectories, an ecological ethics based on relationality renews empiricist
realism and thus debunks reifying power structures.
https://lettersfromirene.home.blog/, 2019
libcom.org https://libcom.org/library/book-review-enlightenment-ecology-legacy-murray-bookchin-21st-century, 2021
Murray Bookchin's (1921-2006) anti-capitalist thinking combined community, direct democracy and e... more Murray Bookchin's (1921-2006) anti-capitalist thinking combined community, direct democracy and ecology into a radical political theory he called social ecology. Throughout the 20th century it stood alongside growing arguments for eco-social change and influenced leftist discourses on citizenship, domination and freedom. In the new millennium, it has formed the basis of the Kurdish feminist-ecological revolution in Rojava and thus been implemented for the first time in practice. The edited volume Enlightenment and Ecology. The Legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21st Century celebrates Bookchin's legacy and considers the lived experiences of social ecology. The anthology is a heartfelt endeavour to point out the urgency, potential and possibility for social change that grounds in the collaborative world-making of ecosystems to create free democratic societies that gain their resilience through a unity in diversity. The activists, thinkers and scholars writing place their contributions in political and economic theory, in decades of social engagement and in co-creation and observation of real-life movements. The outcome is a multifaceted anthology whose engaged voices paint a vivid, dialectical picture of the challenges and hopes of creating practice out of theory.
Trise Transnational Institute for Social Ecology, 2020
Book Review of Social Ecology and the Right to the City, University of Chicago Press. Published i... more Book Review of Social Ecology and the Right to the City, University of Chicago Press.
Published in 2019, the edited volume Social Ecology and the Right to the City grew out of a conference two years prior, organised by TRISE. The Transnational Institute of Social Ecology is an association of Europe-based activists and intellectuals who foster, develop and promote the analysis and practices of social ecology. First conceptualized by Murray Bookchin, social ecology combines anarchist claims to a self-determined life with socialist insistence on communal social structures, and positions these within a framework of eco-systemic sustainability. It thus constitutes one of the most holistic and solution-focussed social theories to face today’s convergence of environmental, social and political troubles. This review presents the volume that grew out of TRISE’s 2017 conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, and proposes further trajectories for the study and implementation of social ecology.