In a time of great gloom and doom internationally and of major global problems, this book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of alternative societies that could be better for humans and the environment.
Bringing together a wide range of approaches and new strands of economic and social thinking from across the US, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Luke Martell critically assesses contemporary alternatives and shows the ways forward with a convincing argument of pluralist socialism.
Presenting a much-needed introduction to the debate on alternatives to capitalism, this ambitious book is not about how things are, but how they can be!
Introduction This chapter looks at financial inclusion and alternative agendas. Chapter 4 suggested that different models of home-ownership might be used to challenge the grip of investor-subjects within housing and the financial system. The present chapter extends this discussion of alternatives. Chapter 1 claimed that it is possible to disentangle financialisation from neoliberalism. The suggestion, then, is that it is possible to develop different versions of financial inclusion (and financialisation) that do not lead necessarily to neoliberalism
This book offers a comparative analysis of alternative education in the UK, focusing on learning spaces that cater for children and young people. It constitutes one of the first book-length explorations of alternative learning spaces outside mainstream education - including Steiner, human scale and forest schools, care farms and homeschooling.Based on original research with teachers, parents and young people at over 50 learning spaces, Geographies of alternative education demonstrates the importance of a geographical lens for understanding alternative education. In so doing, it develops contemporary theories of autonomy, emotion/affect, habit, intergenerational relations and life-itself. The book will appeal to academics and postgraduates in the fields of geography, sociology, education and youth studies. Given ongoing concerns about the state’s role in providing children’s education, and an increase in the number of alternative education providers in the UK and elsewhere, the book also highlights several critical questions for policy makers and practitioners.
In this collection, innovative and eminent social and policy analysts, including Colin Crouch, Anna Coote, Grahame Thompson and Ted Benton, challenge the failing but still dominant ideology and policies of neo-liberalism.
The editors synthesise contributors’ ideas into a revised framework for social democracy; rooted in feminism, environmentalism, democratic equality and market accountability to civil society.
This constructive and stimulating collection will be invaluable for those teaching, studying and campaigning for transformative political, economic and social policies.
In Chapter 1 , I looked at alternative economies, with social dimensions coming more to the fore towards the end. In this chapter, I will turn to social alternatives in education, communes, food counterculture, social centres, criminal justice, and welfare. The cases discussed are chosen for the following reasons: they provide alternatives to dominant important social institutions of capitalism, the market, education, the family, punishment, individualism, and globalization; they are prevalent and important alternatives that can be found widely in practice
I will outline alternative economies and social alternatives in this and the next chapter . I will be discussing alternatives in both theory and practice, and ones that have been tried beyond current societies as well as within them. I want to raise some key themes. Some will come up in more depth in the rest of the book, but I will highlight some initially now. One is about socialism after the failure of so-called communism. Another concerns utopianism, not just in the future but also here and now. Another is about goals like human needs and self
I have looked at alternative societies across the world, but mostly at local or national ones. How do these alternatives relate to international or global society (see Adler, 2019 ; Murphy, 2019 )? In this chapter, I want to discuss alternatives at a more global level, to regimes such as global neoliberalism and the regulation of people movement. In the 1970s and 1980s, globalization was defined, in part, by neoliberalism. For many, globalization meant the spread of economic liberalism as much as the globalization of capitalism. A movement grew in the 2000s
109 5 Humanitarian alternatives I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow creatures happy. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit. (Tom Paine)1 Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and
17 TWO Children in alternative care In most high-income countries, the main reasons that children are in alternative care are family abuse and neglect. In China, due to the absence of an effective child protection system, very few children receive alternative care for these reasons. In China, children receiving alternative care provided by the state are mainly children without parents. Most children who are orphaned live with extended family. If they become state wards, the child welfare institution tries to arrange adoption. Otherwise, the most common
