(2021) Enlightenment and Ecology. The Legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21 st Century (original) (raw)

Murray Bookchin: The Man Who Brought Radical Ecology and Assembly Democracy to the Left (2012)

New Left Project, 2012

understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a challenge to capitalism and the whole social order. In the 1950s and 1960s, before most people even knew what ecology was, he was proposing fundamental solutions. Being ahead of his time, however, meant that his ideas were either ignored or condemned when they were first published; they remain insufficiently recognized today.

Eco-communalism. Bookchin and the Ecology of Revolution

The article develops two main arguments. The first develops the four points on which Murray Bookchin enriches the revolutionary socialist tradition: through the integration of ecology, the consideration of the problem of hierarchy, a rereading of the history of revolutions, and the communalist project as a way to jointly overcome Marxism and anarchism. The second explains that Bookchin's work consists of two inseparable investigations, on the one hand, into the causes of the ecological crisis and, on the other, into the politics of emancipation capable of overcoming this crisis. Bookchin's communalism is ultimately an eco-communalism that allows us to reinscribe the evolution of societies in the evolution of the nature to which they belong.

"The Social Ecology of Murray Bookchin"

Despite more than a decade of widespread pubric discussion of "ecological crises" and,,enviro.r*arrtul problems,,, r"tfra"ti. ecological thinking has had only the *ort *u.ginal influence on contemporary society. The widespread tendenry to triviarize ecology is not limited ro its recycting Uy media, industry and politics for inclusion on their endless lists of ,.issues,,, ,,corcJrns,,, and "items on the agencra-" More disturbing irirr. ""..iii.ur treatment of ecological concep-ts by virtuallyitt tt. prevailing currents in social theory, including .,r., ih. allegldly most radical varieties.

Found in Translation: Murray Bookchin's Social Ecology in Turkey

Transnational Institute of Social Ecology website, 2024

In the present day, many political activists in Turkey are familiar with Murray Bookchin’s ideas, especially in the Kurdish-majority region of the South East. When Abdullah Öcalan adopted and adapted Bookchin’s political theory, he significantly amplified his influence. Commentators such as Carne Ross have spoken of the “remarkable” nature of the relationship that “bizarrely connects” the American social ecologist and communalist with the Kurdish freedom movement’s imprisoned figurehead. Janet Biehl and others have ably analysed Bookchin’s inspiration in reconfiguring the Kurdish revolutionary project. So, we know much about why Öcalan called for the movement to read Bookchin’s works in the 2000s, but we know less about how he came to read them. Yet while the connection may at first seem unlikely, it was not, of course, the outcome of random chance. The first links between social ecology and the Turkish left were established earlier, in the 1980s. This is a brief account of the translation and uptake of Bookchin’s ideas and influence in Turkey, especially and increasingly among the Kurdish population. This article reveals more about, in the words of Janet Biehl, Bookchin’s partner and biographer, the “unsung heroes" who have translated and disseminated Bookchin’s ideas in Turkish.

Social ecology & its Contributions to the Red-Green Movement

As a rising awareness of the consequences of environmental problems comes to reshape the agendas of critical thinkers and activists around the world, it is more important than ever to fully appreciate the origins of eco-socialist thought. Perhaps foremost among those who brought a coherent left analysis to environmental issues, while first introducing ecology to many on the left, is Murray Bookchin, the founding theorist of social ecology. Bookchin was a pioneer of left ecological thought and action beginning in the 1950s and sixties, and his voluminous and many-faceted work continues to influence theorists and activists to this day.

The Fecundity of Social Ecology

This project is one of the only articles written in an accessible style on the obscure radicalism of the American anarchist Murray Bookchin. He was an american anarchist who formed the ideological foundation of The Kurdish Workersparty PKK. He died in 2006 and his works has seen an increase in interest ever since. This project explains how his concept of social ecology works and why it is fecund to involve in modern political thought.

Social ecology, deep ecology, and liberalism

Critical Review, 1992

Murray Bookchin’s influential writings on social ecology attempt to unite the traditional leftist critique of liberal democratic society with contemporary environmental concerns. His work is undermined, however, in part by the dubious comparisons he makes between market systems and ecosystems, and in particular by his failure to understand that these systems operate in a like fashion according to impersonal principles of self-organization. In the case of the market, while this impersonal process facilitates cooperation and exchange, it also rewards the instrumental nature of the relationship between human and ecological communities. Deep ecologists are therefore right to criticize the unwillingness of participants in market societies to appreciate the intrinsic value of nature. The challenges they pose to the human community – to become less anthropocentric and to approach property rights with a sense of stewardship – may be taken up by an “evolutionary liberalism,” which would strive to achieve harmony between humans and the natural world under the guidance of rules ordered by self-organizing principles.