Richard J White - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Richard J White

Everything that standard management and business textbooks talk about - production, buying, selli... more Everything that standard management and business textbooks talk about - production, buying, selling, workplace, motivation, structuring your business - takes place strictly in the context of the market. Businesses are established, people are hired, services and goods are sold and then the money is counted. This is a very simplified sequence of activities, but that is largely what would be covered in most management courses. However, even in the most money-driven settings there are many activities that take place and are not reducible to money. Think of when people work overtime just because of a sense of duty or care, give advice without asking anything in return, or break the rules in order to help a customer. What is common to all these examples is that they might generate value, but they are not motivated by the generation of value (see chapter ten). In fact, caring for others, voluntary work and gift giving happen all around us and are at the centre of everyday life. It should n...

WHITE, Richard (2018). Looking backward/ moving forward. Articulating a "Yes, BUT…!" response to ... more WHITE, Richard (2018). Looking backward/ moving forward. Articulating a "Yes, BUT…!" response to lifestyle veganism, and outlining post-capitalist futures in critical veganic agriculture. EuropeNow (20).

This paper is comprised of a series of short, conversational or polemical interventions reflectin... more This paper is comprised of a series of short, conversational or polemical interventions reflecting on the political ‘moment’ that has emerged in the wake of the rise of right-populist politics, particularly in the Global North. We position the UK’s ‘Brexit’ vote and the election of Donald Trump as US President as emblematic of this shift, which has a longer genesis and a wider scale than these events alone. In particular, we draw on anarchist principles and approaches to consider opportunities for re-energising and re-orienting our academic and activist priorities in the wake of these turbulent times. Following a short introductory section, in which we collectively discuss key questions, challenges and tensions, each contributor individually draws from their own research or perspective to explore the possibilities of a politics beyond electoralism.

Organizations & Markets: Policies & Processes eJournal, 2014

Adopting an ‘anarchist squint’ (Scott, 2014: xii) this paper aims to expose, subvert, and undermi... more Adopting an ‘anarchist squint’ (Scott, 2014: xii) this paper aims to expose, subvert, and undermine the dominant prima facie assumption that we live under a ‘neoliberal capitalist’ order. It achieves this primarily by drawing attention to the pervasive nature of alternative economic modes of human organisation within western society. Celebrating an ontology of economic difference, the paper argues that many of the existing ‘alternative’ modes of human organisation enacted through everyday material, social and emotional coping strategies are demonstrably and recognisably anarchistic. Far from being a residual and marginal realm, these anarchist forms of organisation – underpinned by mutual aid, reciprocity, co-operation, collaboration and inclusion – are found to be deeply woven into the fabric of everyday ‘capitalist’ life. Exploring the key implications for the organisation of everyday work, particularly at the household and community level, an economic future is envisaged in which...

Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge, where Kropotkin’s ‘What Geography Ought to Be’ has... more Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge, where Kropotkin’s ‘What Geography Ought to Be’ has significantly shaped the face of contemporary geographical thought. At the same time, anarchists have developed very different political imaginations than Marxists, where the importance of pedagogy has always been of primary importance. Pedagogy accordingly represents one of the key sites of contact where anarchist geographies can continue to inform and revitalize contemporary geographical thought. Anarchists have long been committed to bottom-up, ‘organic’ transformations of societies, subjectivities, and modes of organizing. For anarchists the importance of direct action and prefigurative politics have always taken precedence over concerns about the state, a focus that stems back to Max Stirner’s notion of insurrection in 'The Ego and Its Own' as walking one’s own way, ‘rising up’ above government, religion, and other hierarchies, not necessarily to overthrow them, but to simply disregard these structures by taking control of one’s own individual life and creating alternatives on the ground. Thus, the relevance of pedagogy to anarchist praxis (understood in a broad sense, as in Paulo Freire’s 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed') stems from its ability to guide a new way of thinking about the world and as a space that is able to foster transgression.

Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating w... more Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating with each other, sometimes struggling against each other. Space is a product of interrelations, and is always under construction. Its co-constitutive role in the development of social relations is multiple and complex: a reference for identity-building and re-building; a material condition for existence and survival; a symbol and instrument of power. However, as much as space has been made instrumental for the purposes of heteronomy (from class exploitation to gender oppression to racial segregation), space (spatial re-organisation, spatial practices and spatial resources) is also a basic condition for human emancipation, i.e. for autonomy and freedom. Recognising the way space has been used for resistance, especially in those more specifically left-libertarian contexts (from the early anarchist organising efforts in the 19th century, to the Paris Commune, to the early kibbutzim, to the makhnovitchina in Ukraine, to the socio-spatial revolution during the Spanish Civil War, to the contemporary re-birth of left-libertarian and sometimes specifically anarchist praxis among social movements such as Mexican Zapatistas) is important. Here, a greater understanding of space can teach a great deal about both limits and potentialities, particularly in relation to the possibilities and tasks of re-purposing and re-structuring the built environment, changing images of place, and overcoming old and new boundaries of all sorts.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2021

Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges as... more Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges associated with the over-production and consumption of food from animals. Transforming food systems to mitigate climate change and hidden hunger, ensure food security and good health all point to reducing animal-based foods as a key lever. Moving beyond animal-based food systems is a societal grand challenge requiring coordinated international research by the social sciences and humanities. A ‘selective openness’ to this range of disciplines has been observed within multi-discipline research programmes designed to address societal grand challenges including those concerned with the sustainability of food systems, inhibiting the impact of social sciences and humanities. Further, existing research on animal-based foods within these disciplines is largely dispersed and focused on particular parts of food systems. Inspired by the ‘Sutherland Method’ this paper discusses the results of an itera...

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2020

PurposeThe authors articulate a posthuman politics of hope to unpack the richly embodied personal... more PurposeThe authors articulate a posthuman politics of hope to unpack the richly embodied personal experiences and web of relationalities formed through repeated encounters with insects. Interrogating insect speciesism teaches to extend the authors’ compassion and live symbiotically with insects. The authors focus on the narrative of insect decline as impacted by colonialism and white supremacy, enabling insect speciesism to flourish alongside exploitation of other human and nonhuman creatures.Design/methodology/approachThe authors pay particular attention the use of everyday language and framing of insects to “other” them, thereby trivializing and demonizing their existence, including “it's *just* a bug” or “they are pests.” Insect speciesism employs similar rhetoric reinforcing discrimination patterns of other nonhuman animals and humans. The authors focus on the unexpected encounters with insects in domestic spaces, such as an office desk, and through the multispecies space of...

Theory in Action, 2020

This paper aims to make a timely and original contribution to the long-standing debates regarding... more This paper aims to make a timely and original contribution to the long-standing debates regarding the interrelationships(s) between democracy, anarchism and the state in two key ways. The first is by exploring more fully the work of Errico Malatesta, particularly focused on critical discussions around 'the nation', 'federation' and 'democracy'. Cognisant of these Malatestian insights, the second part of the paper reflects a resurgent interest in anarchist geographies more generally, and foregrounds a contextual focus of the divisive politics associated with Britain's attempts to leave the European Union ('Brexit'). Here the paper argues for the need to recognise that the crisis of representative democracy is always social and spatial in nature. This is illustrated primarily by highlighting the importance the state places by repeatedly appealing to popular "nationalist" sentiments. In doing so, the state draws on a spatial mechanism of control, one which relies heavily on imagined and real geographical senses of sovereignty, territory and boundaries. Thinking though the implications that a more explicitly spatial reading of democracy, anarchism and the state presents, the paper concludes by considering how post-statist democratic futures might be better envisaged and enacted more fully.

Area, 2016

It is widely believed that there is no alternative to capitalism. Over the last two decades howev... more It is widely believed that there is no alternative to capitalism. Over the last two decades however, the critical geography literature on diverse economies has demonstrated the existence of alternatives to capitalism by revealing the persistence of non‐capitalist forms of work and organisation. The aim in this paper is to question the validity and usefulness of continuing to frame these non‐capitalist practices as ‘alternatives’. Positioning non‐capitalist economic practices as ‘alternatives’ fails to capture not only the ubiquity of such practices in everyday life, but also how those engaging in them do not see them as ‘alternatives’ in the sense of a second choice, or less desirable option, to capitalist practices. The intention in doing so is to reveal that it is not non‐capitalist practices that are ‘alternative’ but rather, capitalist practices themselves, thus opening up the future to the possibility of a non‐capitalist world more fully than has so far been the case.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported this project as part of its programme of research an... more The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported this project as part of its programme of research and innovative development projects, which it hopes will be of value to policymakers, practitioners and service users. The facts presented and views expressed in this report are, however, those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.

Antipode, 2012

WHITE, Richard (2012). The pervasive nature of heterodox economic spaces at a time of neoliberal ... more WHITE, Richard (2012). The pervasive nature of heterodox economic spaces at a time of neoliberal crisis: towards a "postneoliberal" anarchist future. Antipode, 44 (5),

The rise of Critical Animal Studies (CAS) can be attributed to many factors, not least in its ori... more The rise of Critical Animal Studies (CAS) can be attributed to many factors, not least in its original intersectional approach to social justice issues, and appealing for a politics of total liberation, where “human liberation should not be held distinct from nonhuman animal liberation”... An ongoing commitment and desire to forge progressive links and a meaningful relevancy beyond the academy, particularly within animal activist groups, and broader social justice movements, has added an important layer of activist-based scholarship that is largely absent, or ignored, across other animal studies discourse. Seeking to push still forward the reach of CAS, and the relevance of the work for both scholars and activists alike, we want to argue how a deeper, more critical and attuned reading of geography in CAS can make an original and timely contribution here.

Rowman & Littlefield eBooks, Feb 21, 2021

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2011

PurposeMuch of the contemporary literature surrounding the barriers to community self‐help in the... more PurposeMuch of the contemporary literature surrounding the barriers to community self‐help in the advanced economies has placed great emphasis on capital‐orientated barriers, such as a household's access to financial capital, time capital, human capital and social capital. Focusing explicitly on one‐to‐one mutual aid, and drawing on rich qualitative data from two urban communities in the UK, this paper aims to re‐visit the barriers to participation that prevent households from doing more for others in their community. In particular, the paper explores a range of entrenched social taboos that underpin the contested spaces of mutual aid. These include: “being aburden to others”, “false expectations/ inappropriate gestures”, “being taken advantage of” and “being unable to say no”. Furthermore, the paper also addresses the potentially problematic implications that the nature of work undertaken through mutual aid has for the social relationships that are involved. Despite finding pre...