Varieties of Alternative Economic Systems: Practical Utopias for an Age of Global Crisis and Austerity
Edited by Richard Westra, Robert Albritton, Seongjin Jeong
This book moves the debate beyond the critiques and the
false or not fully-realised alternatives, to focus on what can
be termed “practical utopias”. The contributors to this book
outline a range of practical proposals for constructing
pathways out of the global economic, ecological and social
crisis. Varieties of Alternative Economic Systems eschews a
single blueprint but insists on dealing directly with the
deep structural problems and contradictions of
contemporary global capitalism. It provides a diverse array
of complementary proposals and perspectives that can
inform both theoretical thinking and practical action.
Chapter 1) Introduction to practical utopias
Robert Albritton and Richard Westra
Part I
Socialism and ecology
Chapter 2) Radical social democracy: a phase of transition to democratic socialism
Saeed Rahnema
Chapter 3) Ecosocialism for a new era
Pat Devine
Chapter 4) Ecological community: a practical utopia
Ann E. Davis
Chapter 5) Soviet planning and the labor-time calculation model: implications for 21st-century socialism
Seongjin Jeong
Part II
Positive practicalities: leaping ahead
Chapter 6) Provisioning under austerity: meeting human needs in the future
Barbara Hopkins
Chapter 7) World government is a necessity
Robert Albritton
Chapter 8) Alternative principles of labor: liberation from labor and liberation through work
Gui-yeon Jang
Chapter 9) Building a (very) new road to socialism: Cuba in the 21st century
Al Campbell
Chapter 10) South African commoning of medicines and water beyond human rights
Patrick Bond
Part III
New thinking towards a new future
Chapter 11) Foundations and pathways to a progressive, socialist eco-sustainable future
Richard Westra
Chapter 12) A posthumanist economics
Karin Schönpflug and Christine M. Klapeer
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