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Journal articles are not widely read, so can academics cultivate their skills in genres which are more popular and persuasive? Can we ‘write differently’? This paper presents an account of a children's story aimed at engaging children and adults in understanding the relationship between inequality and the climate and ecological crises, and aimed at stimulating readers to engage in social change. The subtext of the children’s story is a critique of mainstream political economy through using the concept of ‘cosmolocal’ production relying on ideas about the commons. We explore whether and how academics can convey these ideas effectively through different forms of publication, and we focus on comparing children's books and journal articles. Many academics would agree that they want to co-create a better future by addressing wealth inequality and environmental degradation through alternative economic and technological models. The question is whether journal articles help achieve that aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renewal of discussions about alternative economic systems in recent years. Democratic planning has received a lot of attention, especially in view of the way it could help address social and ecological challenges. However, little has been written about how a democratically planned economy could relate to other economies through trade or financial flows. This lack of interest is surprising, considering that any country aspiring to plan its economy democratically would have to take into consideration its integration in global value chains and that few would likely aim for complete autarky once fully democratized. In this article, we address this issue by delineating five principles that an institution responsible for international economic relations should follow in a democratically planned economy and giving an example of how it could function in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the strategies developed by Italian Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives to de-commodify, de-instrumentalise and de-monetise labour in their attempt to prefigure alternatives to dominant capitalist agri-food systems. To do so we answer the following research questions: What type of strategies do these CSA initiatives employ to that end? What insights can be gained as regards the potential and barriers to fuller and more accomplished post-capitalist labour management within CSA initiatives? Data were collected through a participatory action research project involving 16 Italian CSAs, participant observation in meetings of CSA initiatives and the Italian CSA Network, and official documents collection. Across the three crucial moments considered in this study, we observe substantial difficulties in realising post-capitalist labour management as the initiatives are constrained by external requirements (e.g., legislation) and also internally by members' weakness in implementing the CSA model due to their remaining integrated in the capitalist system. These findings point to the importance for CSA initiatives of deepening the collective process of deliberate deconstruction of valuation logics and predefined roles, as well as legal frameworks to find ways to enable the realisation of post-capitalist labour management. In this regard, we also suggest that the Italian CSA Network could play a more active role in addressing some of the internal and external factors hindering the consolidation of CSA initiatives and the manifestation of their transformative role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review highlights the potential of a political ecology that approaches socionatures more experimentally and speculatively. We first consider theoretical frameworks which can help elucidate a conceptual and methodological pathway for more experimental and speculative political ecology scholarship. Next, we bring together and systematize multiple threads of political ecology scholarship that already lean into experimentation and speculation. We highlight what we see as their potential, particularly focusing on ongoing struggles for climate and environmental justice. First, we conclude that experimental and speculative approaches are critical for laying the foundations of a future-oriented and reparative mode of critique that illuminates emerging possibilities for alternative worlds. Second, these approaches can generate new registers of consciousness that make room for hope, possibility, creativity, and action. Third, experimental and speculative approaches reconfigure political ecological praxis by fostering a more proactive role for the researcher in addressing socioecological challenges as they emerge. It is our hope that this intervention inspires others to do work that is intentionally more experimental or speculative, creating conditions that could potentially lead to a more equitable society in the present with ramifications for a more just future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of popular commentaries in recent years have contended that the emergence of an advanced, platform-oriented digital economy marks the end of capitalism as such. This paper evaluates these claims from theorists such as Mckenzie Wark and Yannis Varoufakis. Ultimately the paper suggests that a more useful and plausible alternative to them is to be found in the Regulation School assertion that 'platform capitalism' constitutes a new 'regime of accumulation': a successor to 'Fordism' and 'post-Fordism'. The paper explains the historical origins of this approach, arguing for its continued usefulness and its compatibility with important recent developments in institutional, technological and media sociology. It explains the compatibility of an approach characterising 'platform capitalism' as a new regime of accumulation with a range of other perspectives on both 'platformization' and contemporary capitalism, and discusses both recent changes to popular music culture and broad trends in populist politics in recent decades as exemplifying cultural, social and political features of platform capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital commons support novel organizational models such as cosmolocalism and open cooperativism that seek to challenge the capitalist mode of production. They set out to establish a counter-hegemony vis-à-vis the current hegemony of neoliberalism. The paper engages in the debate between Marinus Ossewaarde, Wessel Reijers and Vasilis Kostakis over the emancipatory potential of the digital commons by reviewing the P2P Lab and Tzoumakers as illustrative cases of cosmolocalism and open cooperativism. The paper shows that the P2P Lab and Tzoumakers exhibit core features of cosmolocalism and prefigure a sketch of open cooperativism. For the digital commons in general and P2P Lab/Tzoumakers in particular to contribute to the counter-hegemony of open cooperativism, it is necessary to link to a chain of equivalence criss-crossing the commons, ethical market entities and a partner state via cross-sectoral value propositions, inclusive governance, and economic models, innovative law policies and open sustainability standards, all aiming to force capitalism adjust to a commons-oriented post-capitalist transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for a post-capitalist oriented 'Collective Physical Activity' (Co-PA) to contribute to individual well-being and social change here and now, while working towards more equitable post-capitalist futures. We begin by underlining systemic issues that exacerbate inequalities, highlighting the need for a 'leisure for all' contributing to system change. We briefly critique dominant approaches to promoting sport and physical activity to target inequalities, suggesting three potential improvements: first, diverting attention from organized sport towards personally meaningful physical activities; second, focusing on bottom-up collective opportunities, rather than top-down ones; third, advocating for system change to foster hope and tackle societal issues at their roots. To this end, we propose Co-PA as an approach to physical activity for social justice, suggesting three core features: (i) meaning and enjoyment; (ii) collective engagement; and (iii) a post-capitalist outlook. Finally, we outline examples of how these principles could look like in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the increasingly widespread practice of prepping, and examines how it differs from conventional forms of activism, which generally involve explicit and purposeful efforts to instigate collective social change. Drawing on Luhmann’s sociological theory of risk and the narrative concept of foreshadowing, the paper explores how preppers understand the future and their own responsibility in shaping it, as well as the ways in which their visions of the future show up in the present. The paper argues that while the practice of prepping may appear apolitical and perhaps even asocial at a first glance, its political potential lies in the implicit and largely unintended performative consequences that arise from popularizing and proliferating the idea of a potential alternative to capitalism. Consequently, the paper demonstrates how ‘taking the future seriously’, much like conventional activist movements, albeit within the context of viewing the future as dangerous as opposed to risky, can have performative effects that may ultimately function as a form of ‘implicit activism’. This implicit activism could potentially prove as, if not more, effective in terms of challenging the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism. Considering this, we argue that social movement scholars and activists could benefit from a more profound engagement with the practice of prepping. Empirically, the paper draws on a selection of popular self-help books on prepping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ruin infers ruination, a process that led to the site's demise and that also gives a glimpse into the site's story: who or what lived there?; how long did they live there?; where did they go?; where are they now? Implicit in this line of questioning is a link between the past, present, and future, an understanding that ruins and ruination are never quite absolute or complete. In this short article, we theorize with the concepts of ruin and ruination to consider how capitalism both depends upon and is held hostage by its own making. We aim to bring two trends in political ecology together–one that sees ruins as sites of dispossession and one that sees ruins as sites of hope–to develop what we see as a dialectic of ruination with the intention of highlighting where, how, and what kinds of resistance to capital take place within its machinations. This article serves as the introduction to a special issue on ruins and ruination in political ecology, which we see as a critical field for not only resisting capital's hold on nature-society relations but also for providing pathways towards a post-capitalist future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this article is to construct a comprehensive conceptual definition of "post-capitalism." The contemporary global landscape, characterized by postmodernity, is currently undergoing a profound institutional crisis. This crisis impacts both its economic underpinnings, rooted in the dominance of financial capitalism, and its societal foundations, which revolve around a universal model of social development built upon a universalist model of consumption.Discourses surrounding post-capitalism within Russian and Western academic and expert circles exhibit unique characteristics. However, they share common traits. On one hand, these discourses reflect an acknowledgment of the impasses inherent in existing models of globalization. On the other hand, they recognize the transformation of capitalism as a universal socio-economic system that forms the bedrock of international relations. This article underscores the inescapable rise of non-economic factors influencing socio-economic systems' development, including their role in shaping international relations.Post-capitalism is best understood as a collection of principles guiding spatial organization and the establishment of economic and political relationships within these spaces, rather than a specific developmental model. Positioned as an element within the broader return to a spatiality, post-capitalism is predominantly discussed within the context of international processes, serving as a transitional phase in international political and economic relations.

Relevance. The socio-philosophical analysis of the current phase of social development is carried out in view of occurrence of “digital society”, which is being formed under the influence of development and integration of cutting-edge technologies of different scientific branches and production industries. This leads to transformation of social environment and rise of the new mode of development. Aim. Interpretation and anticipation of current and coming state of digital society, thought of as a new stage of post-industrial development; reveal of reasons of transfer from industrial mode of development to informational one and pursuit of relation between modes of development and modes of production; determination of the role of digital and information technology in the process of the transfer; identification of the mode of production relevant to the informational mode of development. Results. The paper demonstrates the formation of the theory of post-industrial society. Its relationship with the Marxian theory of social development is detected. The authors have carried out phenomenological analysis of “digital society” concept and revealed its correlation to “post-industrial society” and “information society” concepts. The socio-philosophical analysis of social development phases as evolutionary stages of digital society is carried out from the view point of the theory of post-industrial society. Conclusions. The theory of postindustrial society can be used for explaining and anticipating social and economic tendencies, emerging under the influence of transformative technologies of the “fourth industrial revolution”. No direct dependency between mode of production and mode of development has been detected, though processes of capitalism restructuring and informationalism development correlate with each other: the transfer from the industrial mode of development to the informational one is caused by logic and interests of advanced capitalism, but not confined to them. It is notable that digital and information technologies were not the root cause of the transfer, though contributed to it in the long term. The development mode concomitant to the informational mode of development is defined as “informational capitalism”.

The purpose of this article is to attempt a conceptual reconstruction of Marx’s ecological doctrine of the historicity of social metabolism. Based on the texts of Karl Marx and the works of other authors, using the methods of textual analysis, contextualization, extrapolation and dialectical historicization, the article reconstructs in the very first approximation the dynamics of three historical forms of social metabolism – pre-capitalist, capitalist and post-capitalist. It is shown how in each of these three forms, due to changes in the production and labor energy metabolism between humanity and nature, unique social and ecological formations (totalities, universes) are gradually formed. In the pre-capitalist formation as a whole, there were forms of social metabolism mediated by traditional methods of production, in which simple reproduction is aimed at creating consumer values and natural exchange, which ensured the lack of motivation for large-scale technological and resource pressure on nature and, accordingly, the preservation of relative ecological balance and metabolic equilibrium. In the capitalist formation, there are forms of social metabolism mediated by expanded industrial reproduction, included in the system of private ownership of the means of production, mass wage labor, total commodity-money market relations and the production of exchange values for the purpose of unlimited valorization of capital. Such a system determines the growth of anti–ecological resource and technological exploitation of nature, the desire to “conquer nature”, understood as an “inexhaustible storehouse”, which leads to metabolic gaps – systemic contradictions between the universal metabolism of nature and the productivist-Promethean logic of capitalist social metabolism. Metabolic gaps (for example, between man and nature, city and village, production and consumption, market and biological cycles) lead capitalism to ecological imbalances in all spheres of the social universe. In the future post-capitalist formation, according to Marx, emerge will be forms of social metabolism mediated by nature-saving methods of production; reorientation from the exchange economy to the consumer economy and the transition from expanded reproduction to its sustainable forms; convergence of the city and the countryside; elimination of unnatural needs and practices of their satisfaction; increasing the importance of reproductive and restorative forms of activity; sustainable development and orientation to future generations. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the identified mechanisms of changes in past and present forms of social metabolism, which constitute the immanent historicity of the socio-ecological universe, allow not only to predict the ecometabolic features of the post-capitalist future, but also to contribute to a gradual practical movement towards this future.

Recent post-capitalist theorizing, particularly Winant, revives the question of service sector growth. At stake is whether an economic system built on the extraction of surplus value can continue to function when ever-larger shares of workers do not produce this; also, whether their growing predominance prefigures post-capitalist relations of production. Most contributions offer imprecise concepts of service work and capitalist productivity, however. This article sharpens these with Marxian theoretical tools and assesses them using 2016–2020 US Census data, finding that less than one-fifth of service employees produce surplus value, while nearly half of non-service employees do. The majority of service and all formal US employees create important use values outside of direct capitalist exploitation. They thus pose a potentially post-capitalist constituency that is heavily—and non-randomly—female and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). The implications of this for the transition away from capitalism, as well as for the transition debate itself, are then considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews literature within the domain of Information Systems (IS) research regarding the effects that technology may have on the future of work. This paper examines divergent perspectives founded upon contrasting theoretical concepts of sociotechnical and deterministic perspectives. The sociotechnical perspectives discussed in this paper describe a highly mutable work future contingent upon the complex interplay of technology, capitalism, and contemporary organizational change. This future workplace vision is characterized by a cohabitated environment in which humans augment their capabilities through technological advancements and work side-by-side with algorithmic co-workers. In contrast, deterministic perspectives explored in this paper predict a future of work in which technological automation drastically displaces humans. A critical review will expose the logic of the supporting literature predicated upon an oversimplistic view of technology and outdated economic theories that have proven inadequate to engage with the complexities of the contemporary economy. Ultimately, this paper argues that determinist perspectives fail to engage with the complex interplay of humans, technology, and capitalism's constructive forces, rendering the sociotechnical perspective the only viable lens to view the future of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article analyzes work of the Bank of Russia and puts forward suggestions for new monetary-credit tools, which can ensure progressive development of country economy in conditions of rejecting one-polar system of international relations. Policy of the Bank of Russia is characterized by consistent use of such tools as ‘sterilization’ of money stock, its ‘pressing’ by key interest rate, gold selling. These methods implementing basic principles of market fundamentalism in the monetary variant hinder the development of national economy. To replace them the authors propose to fix in the legislative way a direct responsibility of the Ministry of Finance of Russia and the Bank of Russia for attaining planned macro-economic figures and to introduce their coordinated work in line with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia that can be headed by Deputy Prime Minister. According to the authors it is advisable to pass to policy of real post-capitalism and interest-free economy, as elimination of credit repayment can become a serious incentive factor of intensification for entrepreneurial and working activity. In the monetary sphere it is recommended to introduce the digital ruble in two forms that could delimit deals: with industrial and consumer goods. As a result Russia could show an example of successful solution of the problem acute for many countries, i.e. development of a new system of monetary and credit relations, which on the basis of proposed tools can guarantee a real growth in production and people well-being.

The article is devoted to the search for an answer to the question of why in the West, right-wing populists and conservative authors have become in demand among representatives of the working class and the poor. This question directly affects the problems of the evolution of left-wing political thought: leftists are less and less interested in class struggle and more and more often talk about civil rights and ecology. The main message of this article is that the ideological contradictions among the modern Left will no longer seem anomalous if we move away from the idea of the transition to a post-capitalist society as a process in which the interests of the most economically vulnerable are satisfied in the first place. On the contrary, as the facts show, the formation of post-capitalism can be associated with an increase in the social stratum, consisting of those who are no longer struggling for survival and are not in acute material need. They shape their own left agendas by talking about systemic oppression, homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, or environmental pollution. The key problem lies in the specifics of the ideas about the world of left-wing post-materialists: a) they are gradually ceasing to care about socio-economic issues as such; b) their views are becoming naive and idealistic, relevant only to their own secure environment; c) they focus on solving the problems that they believe are caused by consumption and economic growth, and this is often contrary to the interests of the most vulnerable in the socio-economic sense. The article argues that a serious symptom of the growing antagonism between materialists and post-materialists is the very discourses of Conservatives and Republicans, which are becoming increasingly economically centered and attractive to a considerable part of the poor and the working class. Moreover, conservative critics of the contemporary leftists are often convincing in their exposure of left-wing idealism and anti-materialism. All this makes us doubt the relevance of the left-right dichotomy.

This article approaches the climate crisis as a crisis of imagination, building upon post-capitalist thought and Mark Fisher's 'capitalist realism' to outline a framework for imagining beyond the capitalist present. Beginning with Maros Krivy's examination of Estonian wastelands and adjacent nationalism, the article argues that a society's identity and imagination depend upon its relationship with history. Modern-day ruins become a conceptual space for situating 'precarity' in the present, entangling humans with extra-human nature and dismantling perceived economic homogeneity under capitalism. Anna Tsing's ethnographic study of Open Ticket Oregon underpins its conclusions, as do Roy Scranton's notions of death and rebirth. This article sits alongside emerging 'degrowth' and 'pre figurative' discourses to critique certain post-capitalist perspectives failing to provide alternatives or give space to economic diversity. Ultimately, it valorises 'pericapitalist' spaces as an intermediary step between present-day capitalism and a future beyond ruin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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SUMMARY: Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 engages in speculative economics to explore how the household as both a site of provisioning and living together and a material asset may get us to a post‐capitalist world in which capitalism is harnessed not to short‐term profits but with upholding justice and sustainability. In this article, I explore how the novel proposes to bring about a refocusing of priorities within capitalism. Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles: A Family, 2029‐2047, written at the same time as Robinson's novel, helps us to reverse the order of the question from "How is a post‐capitalist society to be inaugurated?" to if such a societal arrangement were to be thrust on us, "How would we change our interiorities and modes of organizing to befit it?" While the first question considers capitalism as a potentially knowable and re‐directable system, the second makes humans, who are products of this system, an unknown quantity because they are opaque to themselves. The search to get a perspective on one's opacity to oneself is as important as ushering in a new economic system as the very means to post‐capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash transfers as a response to poverty and unemployment have moved to mainstream political practice. From global south developmental policy to pandemic payments, there is growing concern with relying on employment for income. Many on the left have been sceptical of, and at times opposed to, such transfers, instead urging direct state provisioning, improved employment, or economic transformation beyond the state. Here, we develop an alternative position, rooted in cautious optimism about the open-ended implications of cash transfers. We consider the possibility that providing a durable, redistributive universal basic income might enable escape from unjust economic relations, underwrite diverse economies, and free time to expand democratic practice. We frame this not as an assured outcome but as a possibility, one those concerned with radical, anti-kyriarchal politics might engage in creating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of experiments in eco-communities in Southwest France and Catalonia and focuses in particular on the production of post-capitalist natures in experiments with plants. Drawing on Deleuze & Guattari, it first orders experimental practices (around irrigation) in terms of a spectrum from 'minor' to 'major', emphasizing in particular the generativity of 'minor experimentation' that is often exploratory, tentative, and ambiguous. It secondly argues that it is crucial to consider how experimental practices relate to other non-experimental practices on-site, highlighting the relationship between minor experiments evolving into 'majoritized' or stabilized interventions, that may be subject to processes of 'scaling up.' Thirdly, it emphasizes the importance of approaching minor experiments through a careful attention to 'difference' that emerges, rather than directly critiquing such experiments. By contrast, the outgrowth of such experiments merits critical examination, according to more clearly defined, external yardsticks, by which political ecological scholarship can critically adjudicate the value of such experiments. The article does so by examining the ways in which experiments may be 'captured' by capitalist logics, hoping to positively contribute to a political ecology of experiments that fruitfully combines critique with more positive and hopeful experimentation.

Potential to identify and cultivate forms of post-capitalism in tourism development has yet to be explored in depth in current research. Tourism is one of the world's largest industries, and hence a powerful global political and socio-economic force. Yet numerous problems associated with conventional tourism development have been documented over the years, problems now greatly exacerbated by impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Calls for sustainable tourism development have long sought to address such issues and set the industry on a better course. Yet such calls tend to still promote continued growth as the basis of the tourism industry's development, while mounting demands for "degrowth" suggest that growth is itself the fundamental problem that needs to be addressed in discussion of sustainability in tourism and elsewhere. This critique asserts that incessant growth is intrinsic to capitalist development, and hence to tourism's role as one of the main forms of global capitalist expansion. Touristic degrowth would therefore necessitate postcapitalist practices aiming to socialise the tourism industry. While a substantial body of research has explored how tourism functions as an expression of a capitalist political economy, thus far no research has systematically explored what post-capitalist tourism might look like or how to achieve it. Applying Erik Olin Wright's 2019 innovative typology for conceptualizing different forms of post-capitalism as components of an overarching strategy for "eroding capitalism" to a series of illustrative allows for exploration of their potential to contribute to an analogous strategy to similarly "erode tourism" as a quintessential capitalist industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was a Russian social theorist and revolutionary activist whose 'universal organizational science', or Tektology, is increasingly being recognized as offering stronger foundations for the systems approach than the later 'general system theory' of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Had his thinking not been suppressed by Stalin, the course of Soviet history might have been different. Stafford Beer (1926–2002) was a British management scientist and consultant who was a pioneer in the development of 'organizational cybernetics'. His best‐known engagement was with the government of Salvador Allende, in Chile, seeking to use his 'viable system model' to create a socialist society that did not rest on a command economy. This experiment was cut short by the Pinochet coup d'etat. I have found no evidence that Beer was familiar with the work of Bogdanov, and this makes the similarities in their thinking particularly striking. This paper explores the ideas they shared in common. The work of other writers who have drawn on the work of Bogdanov and Beer, in formulating contemporary visions of post‐capitalism, is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines how capitalist, alternative capitalist and non-capitalist ontologies and relations are negotiated in a hybrid makerspace that hosts both for-profit and non-profit entities and integrates community and commercial aspects. Despite a growing body of knowledge on the distinct characteristics of non-commercial makerspaces, few scholars have analysed them in relation to capitalism. This applies even more to commercial or hybrid makerspaces that remain so far under-researched in diverse economies literature. These spaces, however, can be of increasing interest given what we know about makerspaces as hubs of budding entrepreneurship and that some makers avidly pursue entrepreneurial objectives while others are reluctant to even consider commercialising their projects. In this paper, I employ an extended framework of diverse economies that understands capitalism as not only a form of socio-economic organisation but also a cultural and political architecture. Followed by an overview of existing literature that sheds light on beyond-capitalist dimensions of makerspaces, I explore a case study of the Keilewerf, a hybrid makerspace situated in Makers District in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, disentangling how capitalist, alternative capitalist and non-capitalist ontologies of sustainability-oriented makers co-exist and conflict with economic relations, knowledge production and relations with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the destruction of the widespread myth about Karl Marx as a “Promethean thinker”. Under Prometheism/Prometheanism is the point of view according to which nature is considered as a quantitatively “inexhaustible storehouse”, which must be known and conquered on the basis of scientific and technical knowledge in order to be used to meet constantly growing human needs through continuous growth of production and, accordingly, a permanent increase in the degree of aggressive exploitation of nature while completely ignoring the consequences of this exploitation both for the environment and for human society itself. Since the myth of the “prometheanism” of Marx, which is very tenacious to this day, was previously dispelled in the field of political economy (J.B. Foster, K. Saito, P. Burkett), sociology (A. Salleh, M. Musto), ecology (B. Clark, J. Moore, E. Alvater, K. Saito, T. Grassmann), political science (K. Royce), then in the proposed study the author focused only on some of the philosophical aspects of the problem. In the first part of the article it is shown that Marx (based on some of his statements) is mistakenly criticized by many thinkers for anti-environmentalism; in the second, relying on the texts of Marx himself, it is proved that these fragments torn from the general context of his philosophy are mostly false, because Marx, often praising technological progress, nevertheless, was not a Promethean, as he subjected the social and environmental consequences of the capitalist application of technology and science to radical scientific criticism; Finally, in the third part, through the reconstruction of Marx’s philosophical-anthropological and socio-philosophical ideas, Marx’s true attitude to environmental issues is shown. The author’s arguments are as follows. According to Marx, the ontological basis for the existence of any human society is social metabolism, i.e. the exchange of substances between man and nature through transformative activity, during the deployment of which all the “worlds” in which man exists are drawn into metabolic exchange (nature, society, “second nature” – material and spiritual culture, the world of others, their own inner world). Each socio-historical stage of development has its own specific type of metabolism, i.e. its own special form of ecological interaction between all “worlds”. Based on this method, Marx shows that metabolic rifts, i.e. disturbances in the processes of normal, balanced flow of social metabolism in the totality of all these “worlds” are most characteristic of capitalism due to its structural Promethean intentions (the desire to increase profits, which is associated with the need for permanent growth of production – the imperative “grow or die!”; and hence to increase the exploitation of nature). And in this sense, Marx’s philosophical ecology not only fully corresponds to the modern level of understanding of ecological/environmental problems, but also offers a holistic methodology not only for “explaining” these problems, but also for their “practical solution”.

The aim of this paper is to give a meaning to the post-capitalism signifier. For this, we have carried out a conceptual analysis of the literature on the subject in the main languages during the last three decades from the "signifiers" approach. Subsequently, we have carried out a deconstruction of the meaning of capitalism signifier to construct a plural and coherent meaning of post-capitalism, with which to then turn to empirical reality in search of its praxis. From this we have concluded that post-capitalism is a set of forms of organization of socioeconomic systems that are subsequent and alternative to capitalism. These forms are characterized by the non-preeminence of the free market as a resource allocation mechanism, or by the non-preeminence of private property as an instrument for the accumulation of wealth, or by the non-preeminence of selfish rationality as a criterion for making economic decisions, or by a combination of these traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is concerned with the substantive nature of late capitalism, which determines all spheres of social existence. It is clarified that neoliberal ideology forms a special type of socio-cultural relations, in which the politics' technocratic nature disregards humanitarian and cultural aspects and doubts the very existence of the social. Under the circumstances of IT intensified development and real crisis of capitalism, the fundamental process of human-human interaction is ignored, consequently resulting in the loss of the human's fundamental feature, that is, his sociality. Socio-philosophical research in modern realities is assigned to actualize the issues of spiritual production related to preservation of the social as the ontological essence of society existence in the future. Therefore, our paper aims to analyze the socio-productive function of education and medicine in the formation of a humanitarian and anthropological model of preserving social partnership and tolerance in modern society as opposed to the disappointing and disturbing experience of chronic social pathologies, medicalization and formation of the "remission society" model within the framework of capitalism. The formation of a humanitarian and anthropological model of preserving the social consists in actualizing the evolutionary mechanisms for social humanism, which is the basic characteristic of the post-capitalist reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catastrophic effects of the Anthropocene are evident. Manifestations of crisis are not only environmental, but also economic, social, political and ethical: combined with the dystopian imaginaries of the future, they suggest the need for a paradigm shift. The Commons are seen as an alternative for a transition to a post-capitalist economy. Yet, Design for social innovation is understood as a humanitarian action and remains linked to the logic of commodification; reason why some call for decolonizing Design from Western abstractions. The focus is on the relationship between Design and Commons, with particular attention to decolonial thinking. Following an action research approach that consisted in "inhabiting" the oasis of Chenini in Tunisia as a Commons in crisis, the idea was to understand the role of Design in the paradigm shift from an extractivist growth economy to a resource economy; Design as attached to situations rather than objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the article, post-capitalism is viewed not as a prospect of a progressive movement towards a brighter future, but as archaization – the establishment of social relations reminiscent of pre-capitalist ones. Concepts are considered, the authors of which point to the corresponding tendencies: parcelling of sovereignty, merging of economic and political power, blocking the paths of upward mobility, class and caste character of social stratification, and much more. The article substantiates that the reasons for these trends should be sought not only in neoliberalism. The author puts forward the thesis that some of the phenomena associated with modernist progress (increasing the share of the middle class in society, accelerating social mobility, etc.) were a historical exception because, thanks to the industrial revolution, the broad masses of workers acquired a significant “negotiation” advantage in the form of a well-sold labour force involved in material production. This advantage disappears as production becomes more automated and the creative economy grows. Creative “labour” is much more difficult to sell due to the unpredictability of the creative process itself. Economic elites, in turn, rarely invest directly in “human capital”, preferring to look for talents and “appropriate” them, rather than develop them on a massive scale. This leads to the corresponding transformations of the social structure. Nevertheless, the article argues that the terms referring to the past (neo-feudalism, etc.) are unlikely to be suitable for a correct assessment of the current situation. We are in a different situation when the omnipotence of the “neo-feudal” can quite be countered by a perspective in which the universal and purposeful acceleration of scientific and technological progress is accompanied by a growing demand for maximizing the realization of everyone's talents.

Communism and the state share, historically, an intrinsic link, so much so that, at least in North America, state control, totalitarianism, and communism have become practically synonymous with each other in general parlance. Marx, and countless Marxists after him, however, advocated for the disappearance of the state, taking aim at the state’s role, and complicity in, forwarding and perpetuating class inequalities, and the entire structure of capital itself. In this same sense, the state can be seen as a form of meta-structure, reinforcing through law, force, and ideology, the internal logic of capitalism itself. Thus, while also exploring what the state as such is, this talk will ask: what then does the disappearance of the state mean today, how do these forms of hegemonic control function across a wide range of variegated contexts, and through what modes can we resist them? Author(s): Zachary De Jong Title (English): The Withering away of which State? Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 19, No. 1-2 (2022). Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities - Skopje Page Range: 48-56 Page Count: 8 Citation (English): Zachary De Jong, "The Withering away of which State?,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 19, No. 1-2 (2022): 48-56. Author Biography Zachary De Jong, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje Zachary De Jong is a researcher and graduate student at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje. His research is focused on examining Marxist and materialist conceptions of what a post-capitalist or communist society could look like going forward. He has published an article on this topic entitled: “Reimagining the Oikos” (Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture).

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Despite the great relevance of global environmental scenarios for the study of environmental change and sustainability transitions, they have rarely been the object of analysis for scholars of the social sciences. In this article, we analyze the ideological assumptions of 993 global environmental scenarios contained in 243 academic works. By developing a new categorization of environmental scenarios, we investigate the economic and governance organization reflected in the scenarios, as well as the portrayed human-nature relationships. We find that global environmental scenarios developed and used by the scientific community largely reproduce rather than break with dominant power structures in the economic, governance and cultural domain. The majority of scenarios reflects an anthropocentric worldview and assumes that the logic of global capitalism and of the Westphalian state-based governance system will not change radically during the 21st century. The implicit solution of sustainability problems dominating these scenarios is a combination of continuous economic growth, rapid technological progress and an international (environmental) agreement. 'Alternative scenarios' are scarce, often only problematize one dimension of the social structure of world society and frequently lack explicit drivers of change or pathways to desirable futures. To increase the diversity of scenarios, future research should focus on refining and quantifying existing post-capitalist, post-state-centric and/or ecocentric scenarios, and on developing a range of scenarios whose storyline systematically problematize or even break with current power structures. • We apply a novel categorization of global environmental scenarios to 342 different scenarios. • The great majority of scenarios displays are strong bias toward extending the status quo to the future. • Technological progress and economic growth are presented as solutions to sustainability problems. • Post-capitalist and ecocentric scenarios featuring governance beyond nation states are rare and barely quantified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]