PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECOLOGY
COMING SOON
THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY: between Eco-nationalism and Just Transition
In the context of the environmental crisis and growing social inequalities changes in international relations are increasingly challenging the dominant paradigm of globalization that has shaped the global economy in recent decades. Due to the destabilization of supply chains, escalating geopolitical tensions, and the exceeding of ecological limits, concepts such as self-sufficiency and sovereignty are receiving more attention in both academic discourse and political practice.
Calls for self-sufficiency frequently challenge our reliance on global markets and fossil fuel-based infrastructure, as well as the profit-driven nature of the economy. Various community initiatives at the local level strive for self-sufficiency in food and energy to reduce the environmental footprints, reclaim collective autonomy, and experiment with decommodified forms of living.
At the same time, the intensification of interstate competition is giving rise to the importance of ideas of national self-sufficiency, with contradictory effects. Strategic autonomy is an important goal, particularly for countries in a subordinate position within the world system. However, the pursuit of self-sufficiency can reinforce authoritarian statism and undermine international cooperation.
In the realms of ideas and politics, the concepts of self-sufficiency and sovereignty appear across a broad ideological spectrum. These range from anarchist and eco-socialist perspectives, which emphasize democratic participation and ecological constraints, to nationalist and neo-fascist projects that instrumentalize self-sufficiency to legitimize exclusion, militarization, and authoritarian rule.
The International Summer School of Political Ecology 2026 aims to provide greater conceptual clarity around self-sufficiency and critically examine its various political meanings. While identifying the political dangers inherent in calls for self-sufficiency, we will focus on the emancipatory potential of these ideas, which could contribute to a just green transition.
ulrich brand
MONDAY, 29.6. 2026
Capitalism at the limit. How the imperial mode of living leads to eco-imperial tensions and which alternatives do exist
In their book “Imperial Mode of Living” (IML, translated into eleven languages) and through this concept, Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen seek to highlight that capitalism entails both unequal development and the steady, accelerating globalisation of a Western mode of production and way of life. They aim to demonstrate that the deepening of the IML is a major cause of the ecological crisis as well as of economic and political instability.
In their latest book (published in late September 2025), Brand and Wissen use the term IML to identify certain dynamics of the current multiple crisis, intense struggles and what they describe as “ecological-imperial tensions”. Both books conclude with reflections on the contours and possibilities of a “solidary mode of living”.
martín lallana
TUESDAY, 30.6. 2026
How can we build class power for an ecosocialist transition?
Both the global environmental and political spheres are on the brink of irreversible disaster. A growing body of research demonstrates how countries in the Global North could significantly reduce their consumption of energy and materials, while ensuring their populations' social well-being. However, reality is moving in the opposite direction, driven by market forces and geopolitical competition.
Solving this situation requires answering two key questions: How can we democratically plan for socio-ecological transformation, and how can we build the class power necessary to do so? In this conference, we will address this debate, with a strong emphasis on the necessary labour organisation and trade union renewal. Drawing on lessons learnt from recent conflicts, a way forward will be mapped out.
Henrique tahan novaes
TUESDAY, 30.6. 2026
Society Beyond Capital: Just Transition, Self-Management, and Ecosocialism
This presentation is divided into three parts. In Part 1, we will address the metabolic rift caused by the reproduction of capital, particularly the role of capital accumulation, planned obsolescence, exploited labor, and the expropriation of natural resources.
In the second part, we intend to discuss some alternatives created by Latin American social movements, particularly those based on the self-management of factories and territories, as well as agroecological initiatives.
In the third part, we will address the foundations of a just, self-managed, and ecosocialist transition.
Irene Sotiropoulou
TUESDAY, 30.6. 2026
Machines otherwise? Digital technologies in grassroots economic practices
When discussing self-sufficiency we usually avoid the elephant in the room, that is the role digital technologies have in our economies. At the same time, many types of economic activity that are organised on grassroots or community level use those digital technologies in ways that are effective and meaningful and very much appropriate for each activity.
The lesson is dedicated to this use of machines and digital technologies in different contexts than the mainstream economy. What can we learn from solidarity initiatives about technological tools? Are small markets relying on internet, to what extent and why? Why do social kitchens refuse to digitise their activities? What type of digital technology do we have if it is used differently?
Manuela Zechner
WEDNESDAY, 1.7. 2026
Care vs. prepping in the vicious circles of transition
We see the green transition is play out in rather capitalist and extractive ways, looping us into vicious circles of more-more-more (in the words of Jean Baptiste Fressoz and so many more). Global corporations profit, whilst nation states close back into themselves to promote supposed self-sufficiency, with a hue of ‘green’.
Our ecofeminist ears hear toxic patriarchal and supremacist tones echo in this: the broken idea of independence attempting to be again revived. Time to look to care rather than prepping, and to tune into the nutritious feedback between autonomy and interdependence rather than pursue toxic ideas of independence or self-sufficiency.
Andrea Ghelfi
WEDNESDAY, 1.7. 2026
Cultivating Gaia: Peasant Return, Food Networks, Community Technoscience and Socio-Ecological Trasversalities. Notes from Agroecological Movements in Italy.
Prof. Ghelfi will share with the findings of a co-research process that has been going on for more than ten years within the agroecological and peasant movements in Italy.
Several key experiences will guide us in exploring agroecology as a more than local and less than global movement, with the aim of discussing together its trends and limitations.
We will focus on four areas of interest: the reinvention of rural forms of life; the role of community-based technoscience and agroecological knowledge in the ecological transitions of situated territorialities; the rearticulation of the urban-rural relationship as it is being experimented in peasant food networks; the non-linear emergence of an agroecological politics within the paradigm of eco-social convergence.
Hibist Kassa
THURSDAY, 2.7. 2026
Artisanal mining: African resource sovereignty or extractivism of another type
Why does artisanal gold mining expand rapidly across Africa despite criminalisation? This lecture presents the concept of 'extractivism of a special type' to answer that question.
Drawing on two empirical cases, an occupation by 'galamsey' of Obuasi (Ghana) and the 'zama zama' of deindustrialising Ekurhuleni (South Africa), I argue that the rise of artisanal and small-scale mining is not accidental but a direct product of free-market reforms and intersecting ecological and social reproduction crises.
The lecture compares the two cases highlighting state presence versus absence in a post large-scale mining decline period.
morgan ody
THURSDAY, 2.7. 2026
INTERVIEW WITH THE COORDINATOR OF LA VIA CAMPESINA
Morgan Ody is one of the most important activists and leaders in the food sovereignty movement. She is the General Coordinator of La Via Campesina International, which is an international farmers organization founded in 1993, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries. It coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe. Morgan makes a living as a peasant farmer growing vegetables. She has been active with the Confédération Paysanne in France for more than fifteen years, struggling mainly on the issue of access to land.
The interview will touch a broad set of issues: what is the meaning of self-sufficiency for the peasant movement, why we need a land reform, how to understand the dynamics considering the climate politics and other state policies, and where lies the real power of the peasantry: in short, about where the movement has been and where we are headed.
The conversation will be moderated by Nežka Struc, a slovenian poet, radio journalist, and anthropologist. Her work focuses on themes of community, solidarity economies, and non-hierarchical forms of everyday life and in her research she has explored networks of self-organized food supply groups.
photo: Katja Cankar
Contact
- info@politicalecology-ljubljana.si
Links
LIFE IP CARE4CLIMATE (LIFE17 IPC/SI/000007) is an integrated project, financed by the European Comission's LIFE Programme, the Slovenian Climate Fund and partners' own contributions.
The opinions expressed in this document are those of the author(s) only and should not be considered as representative of the European Union's official position.
English (UK) 
Slovenščina