We’re calling for contributions for our next edition exploring the worlds of political ecology. Get in touch to contribute to the development and advance of green movements and parties for the years to come.
The demand for a politics that reckons with the fact that human society exists as part of a wider ecological system is growing. This trend dates beyond recent electoral successes of green parties or the rise of the climate movement, stretching back three decades at least.
Political ecology emerged in response to the manifest destructiveness of today’s society, to the excesses of the industrial world from nuclear disasters to over-consumption and extinction. Broad sociological changes such as the growth of cities and new patterns of living and working also underlie its development. In general, its advocates share a commitment to environmental and social justice, real democracy and participation, and an open, inclusive society.
Green parties are among political ecology’s most prominent practitioners and its main link to institutional power. In north-western Europe, they are typically major opposition parties or junior coalition partners. Elsewhere in Europe, they exist on the margins. The reasons for this discrepancy need to be understood, in geographic and historic as well as political and strategic terms.
Capital-p politics should not overshadow all that happens outside of parties from street protests to trade unions to citizens’ movements. Building consensus for a progressive, post-carbon future will mean recognising new cleavages and finding narratives that can bridge them. In a period of democratic uncertainty, when the entire political spectrum, fascists included, is painting itself green, it is crucial for political ecology to see where it stands and ask where it is headed.
This is why we are calling for contributions exploring how society is changing and what it means for how green politics is done as it seeks transform institutions and power at all levels right across Europe and the world.
Approach
What aspects of political ecology would you like to explore? Here are some ideas:
- Political ecology: philosophy, currents, contradictions
- Green strategy: power, opposition and coalitions, shifting political landscapes
- The question of generations and new ways of doing politics in an ageing society
- Sustainability and autonomy in a digital society
- Scenarios for green government from the ‘first 100 days’ to dilemmas down the line
- Implications of climate politics for Europe and the international system
- Exploration of some fundamentals: extractivism and productivism, patriarchy and feminism, caring for the living, the question of limits, inequalities
- Friends and allies: commoners, municipalists, pirates
- Industry, climate crisis, and the state: the Green New Deal and related issues
- New societal trends and emerging cleavages
Contributions from the south and east of Europe, as well as from the rest of the world, are especially welcome.
Editorial requirements
We do not just want theoretical and academic articles for the next edition of the Green European Journal. Far from that, we are looking for lively texts, interviews, and art that will stimulate thought, debate, and imagination. Essays and fiction, maps and comics, all kinds of contributions that pursue this aim to explore the past, present, and future of the green movement are welcome.
Potential contributions should be sent to laurent.standaert@gef.eu and jamie.kendrick@gef.eu.
Please send a summary of your proposed article and introduce yourself before submitting a final draft.
The Green European Journal accepts submissions in English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish. Articles in other languages should be accompanied by an abstract in one of the above languages. Before submitting an article, please read our editorial guidelines carefully. Submissions may be published in print or online.
The deadline for pitches, ideas, and contributions was the November 25th 2019.