THE PUBLIC, THE PRIVATE AND THE COMMONS: CHALLENGES OF A JUST GREEN TRANSITION
Monday 1.7.
VIEWPOINTS
8:00 - 9:00 Registration
9:00 - 9:30 Opening address
What is the green transition, why's it so slow, who’s behind the backlash, and what on earth to do?
The lecture commences with a critical overview of mainstream accounts of the green transition: pluralist and technocratic stories of governments, businesses and individuals altering policies and practices that propel human society toward the goal of ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions and environmental ameliorations. It next considers explanations of why the transition is proceeding so sluggishly (climate change as a ‘wicked problem', ‘collective action problems’ encountered in mitigating it, and so on). Through a critique of such accounts I delineate an alternative, one that foregrounds systemic relations of power. As case studies I look at the economic growth compulsion, and the fetishism of technology. From this vantage point I look at the question of anti-environmental backlashes from a new direction. In the concluding section I turn to questions of strategy, including degrowth and the Green New Deal.
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
Just green transition and the politic of value: perspectives from the agrarian context
The agrarian sector plays a central role in the context of the global ecological crisis and green transition strategies. It is also a strategic terrain for the recomposition of capital-nature relationships. In this lecture, I present my research on three conflicting domains of green transition policies concerning agriculture: agrofuel politics and land grabbing; techno-scientific innovations and agro-ecological resistance; the role of labour in the digital agriculture paradigm. In commenting on them, I will discuss the peculiar value politics that these processes entail, underlying the extractive and speculative character of green capitalism, as well as the alternative and conflicting rationalities and alliances that confront it, and their role in the construction of a just green transition for all.
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
From Bullshit Abundance to Radical Abundance: Theorising Eco-Socialist Transition With Public-Common Partnerships
We live in a world of bullshit abundance. A world where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. A bullshit abundance of microplastics, of greenhouse gasses, of shoddily produced commodities, and of private profits made through the exploitation of land, sea, and labour. Drawing on Istvan Meszaros’ theorisation of revolutionary transition and struggles to implement public-common partnerships in the UK, this lecture asks how we can leave this world of bullshit abundance behind once and for all.
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
Mapping lost ecocultural landscapes: a minority perspective
Over the last century, countless environmental and cultural landscapes, many of which inhabited by indigenous communities and ethnic minorities, have been wiped off the face of the earth due to economic development pressures. What remains of those submerged histories in the narratives and consciousness of the majority population? In this workshop, participants will be guided to locate some of these lost places on the world atlas and reflect on the ongoing risks that the diverse eco-cultural heritage faces today despite the discourse on the green transition.
18:00 Evening: socializing & refreshments
Tuesday 2.7.
FINANCE & DEPENDENCY
It’s After the End of the World: economic justice in an age of open-ended crisis.
Climate change and the nature crisis are moving, inexorably, to the center of our lives: environmental instability is imposing itself on us all in a way without precedent in the history of modern humans. This ecological transition is mediated through structures of capitalism, forming a uniquely open-ended crisis: unlike those in the past, the crisis cannot even in principle stabilise itself. A new politics of economic and environmental justice is needed, founded on addressing instability.
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
Dependency, “green” transition, and struggles for the commons. Argentina as experimental field for a new wave of looting.
Argentina has been going through a deep crisis for at least a decade. The dominant fractions of capital have attempted to transform and deepen the economy’s dependency by accelerating a process of transition into a green capitalism’s chains of value and super-exploitation. They tried green developmentalist strategies, and under Javier Milei’s paleo-libertarian government, they promote extreme forms of plundering of the territories, and common goods. As resistance abounds, the people defend their lives and livelihoods, creating new forms of social reproduction.
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
The Green Left in Power
I start from an overview of urban movements in Southeast Europe, addressing commonalities of context and strategies, and after that I delve into Možemo! and the problem of winning power from a left perspective. Možemo! in problem pridobivanja oblasti z leve perspektive.
Leaning into Foucault's thesis that the left has the ideology that rationalises its power, but lacks its own institutional practices to achieve its goals, we analyse our experience in power in Zagreb, focusing in particular on our policy change in waste management in the city and the role that municipalism plays in building up capacity for transformative change.
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
1. Criostóir King – Development, Ecology, Justice: A Political Ecology Lens for Studying Socio-Ecological Conflicts in Rural Ireland
2. Rebecca Vining – Romanian bodies, Irish berries: A multi-scalar approach to migrant horticultural work
3. Louise Lamers – Campesino Responses to Green Land Grabbing: Navigating the Environmental Importance of the Páramo Ecosystem in Sumapaz, Colombia
Moderator: Sultana Jovanovska
Master's students participating in the accredited programme and other interested participants will present their work in the form of posters. The poster fair will provide a platform to present posters and exchange ideas.
20:00 Socializing (SEM)
Wednesday 3.7.
ENERGY DEMOCRACY
Energy commoning: opportunities & barriers for a just energy transition
This presentation critically examines the impact of energy market liberalisation in Europe. Using the framework of commons studies, it explores energy commons as a political hypothesis with the capacity of influencing and transforming the current energy system. Energy commons are understood as community-managed and/or citizens-oriented experiences that promote energy democracy, justice and sustainability. Case studies of Barcelona Energia and Catalan energy communities illustrate practical implementations. Finally, it assesses how energy commons can support a just energy transition and a more just energy system.
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
Reclaiming and democratising public services from an ownership and governance perspective
The lecture will focus on TNI's trajectory on Energy Democracy, with a quick snapshot on reclaiming and democratising public services. We will explore municipal energy transitions across Europe and EU's push for liberalising and privatising member state's energy sectors.
As a survey of 15 "green" multinationals shows, the energy transition is being hijacked by corporate interests. What are the dominant energy transition myths that are threatening decarbonisations? And why should we aim for a Peoples' takeover of the energy system: converging struggles to deprivatise, decolonise and democratise energy.
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
All the power to all the people: energy communities as radically realistic solutions
Is the 'greenlash' really that big, or do citizens just want a more fair distribution of economic benefits of the climate transition? Energy communities are a concrete tool to ensure a democratic, fair, green energy transition. They are local groups of citizens, SMEs and Municipalities that jointly develop renewable energy projects, thus ensuring strong economic benefits for the local community, while also cultivating acceptance for renewable energy. Over the past years the EU Commission has provided for clear legislative support, including through recent revisions in key Green Deal legislation. Member States are now encouraged to include energy communities in offshore wind parks, housing renovations, electric mobility, and in general across all activities of the energy sector. The energy and climate transitions will only succeed with greater democracy and fair distribution of benefits.
Hrastnik Solar School
Marko Funkl, Mayor of the Municipality of Hrastnik, will present the first self-consumption communal solar power plant in Slovenia as a practical example of a fair green transition.
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
1. Eda Bülbül – Principles of Energy Justice: Looking at the Environmental and Climate Justice Principles with Energy Justice Approaches
2. Hira Yousuf – Energy crises and discard in Pakistan: a case study on Korangi’s fisherfolk
3. Arianna Poletti – Toward an Ecological-Political Understanding of Migration from Tunisia: Exploring the Role of Energy Policies in Southern Ecosystems’ Desertification
Moderator: Karla Tepež
The energy sector is one of the least gender diverse sectors. At the level of the European Union, only 24% of employees in the energy sector are women, while women in Slovenia represent only 15% of all employees in the energy sector. Women are underrepresented in decision-making processes and in the management structures of energy companies, they are paid less and it is more difficult for them to advance. Reports show that women and female-headed households are disproportionately affected by energy and transport poverty. This vulnerability is compounded by factors such as age, disability and ethnicity. Women and girls around the world face the negative impacts of climate change to a greater extent, mainly because of their economic disadvantage. We are therefore in a situation where we have a sector where, on the one hand, women are underrepresented, and on the other hand, they often bear a greater burden of the consequences of the current energy system. Are current EU policies making the problem worse? Is it enough to increase the representation of women or do we need deeper changes?
We will seek answers to these questions at the international round table with the help of interesting speakers:
• Lavinia Steinfort, a political geographer and activist, who researches just transition to energy democracy;
• Lidija Živčič from the environmental organization Focus, who has been working on energy poverty for many years;
• Sandy Fameliari, a collaborator at ELECTRA Energy in Greece, working on community energy projects.
Moderator: Katjuša Šavc
20:00 Socializing (SEM)
Thursday 4.7.
THE CITY
Green cities for whom? Thinking public, private and commons in urban space & housing
Making cities greener and more sustainable is an increasing global priority, but who are these cities for? The lecture will outline some of the major tensions related to the public, private and commons in cities today, focusing on housing financialisation, green gentrification and green finance. It will also discuss what can be done to think and act the city as commons, from radical policy interventions to grassroots action, reflecting on questions of scale and politics in the just urban transition.
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
Transformative Urban Dynamics in Ljubljana: Between the Public, the Private, and the Commons
The lecture will closely examine the transformative dynamics shaping urban landscapes in post-socialist cities, with a particular focus on Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana. It will explore the evolution of urban planning and governance paradigms, spanning from post-war "modernist" planning to the contemporary dominance of what is often termed as investor urbanism. Building on this analysis, it will illustrate how open public and community spaces today serve as a political terrain where various public, private, and communal interests and urban agendas collide in often peculiar ways, setting the stage for uncertain developmental trajectories.
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
1. Vanessa Regazzi – The new forms of living: challenges and opportunities for an eco-social transformation
2. Hannah Janßen – Citizens’ evaluation of sufficiency policies in the field of housing. The role of communication and personal affectedness.
3. Davorin Žnidarič – The Introduction of Green Concepts in the Zasavje Region and a Constructively Critical View through the Desire to Produce Green Energy of the Waters of the Sava River.
Moderator: Sultana Jovanovska
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee Break
The debate will provide an opportunity to exchange views and ideas on the work of students registered for the accredited programme. We wish to enhance the opportunity for feedback and improvement of their texts, and furthermore facilitate discussion among the participants of the summer school.
Moderator: Sultana Jovanovska
A unique alternative tour of Ljubljana, running regularly since 2017. Although it doesn't skimp on the classic attractions, it is packed with alternative art, independent lifestyle hot spots and engaging political insights. The tour combines street culture and historical monuments, avant-garde spaces and old town haunts, graffiti-covered facades and the bridges of the Ljubljanica. It also takes you, of course, to the heart of Metelkova and what once was the famous Rog factory.
Tour run by: https://ptich.si/; 10-15 EUR (depending on the number of attendees); registration required HERE.
20:00 Socializing (SEM)
Friday 1.7.
COMING TOGETHER
Transitioning Beyond Planetary Eco-cide – Transformative Politics and the Commons Response
Capitalism’s accumulation through eco-cide (mass scale destruction of human and non-human life) has been unleashed on a planetary scale since the shift to industrial capitalism. Its roots lie deep in the colonial encounter and enclosures of the commons. Grounded in the binary of humans versus natural relations this logic has reached a point of even threatening to lock in a shift in a new state for the earth. Underpinning this is catastrophic impacts on human and non-human life forms, socio-ecological systems and processes. The current trajectory of accumulation through eco-cide threatens everything. In this context transformative politics has come to the fore offering a new imaginary and a new conception of the political while centering the importance of the commons (land, water, biodiversity, creative labour, energy, earth relations and the cybersphere) as crucial for deep just transitions at different scales. This lecture will explore the new transformative politics emerging from over three decades of resistance and will offer various examples, at different scales, that are transitioning the planetary beyond eco-cide.
Public participation in spatial planning: from right to need, from good practice to a participatory culture
We will explore the practice of public participation in spatial planning and try to define, through different examples, how participation influences spatial planning and management, solutions, individuals and communities. A brief introduction and presentation of examples will be the starting point for a discussion on how to move quickly and effectively from the right and need to participate to good practices and a culture of participation. More and more examples of good practice nowadays support the idea that the participation of the citizens, the public and other stakeholders works in favour of problem solving and communities. Moreover, many public policy measures and recommendations are based on the concepts of stakeholder integration and participation in spatial planning. Yet, at the same time, we are constantly seeing boundaries being tested and the exclusion of the public in planning and management processes is a classic maneuver to pursue objectives that are not necessarily in the public interest. Civic initiatives are a side-effect, not an essential component of public participation in spatial planning.
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
The closing discussion will reflect on the summer school, discuss new concepts and exchange ideas for future efforts toward a just green transition.
13:00 Lunch
LECTURERS
James Meadway
is an economist and host of the weekly Macrodose podcast. He was previously economic advisor to the Shadow Chancellor, chief economist at the New Economics Foundation, and director of the Progressive Economy Forum. He has written widely on economics and the environmental crisis.
Maja Simoneti
is a landscape architect with a Phd in urbanism and spatial planning. She works as a project manager at IPoP - the Institute for Spatial Policy in Ljubljana, which is active in different roles in a broad field of sustainable urban development. As a researcher, in addition to public green spaces, she is particularly interested in system solutions and public participation in spatial planning and management. Recently, she has been working extensively on solutions for walkable, healthy, and resilient cities and communities.
Maura Benegiamo
is a researcher in economic sociology and labour studies at the Department of Political Science, University of Pisa. She is interested in political ecology and capitalist transformations in the context of ecological crisis; biocapitalism and neoliberal governance, and de-colonial approaches. She has conducted research on environmental conflicts, extractivism and land grabbing, preparedness, development and technoscientific innovations. She is currently leading a research project on just transition and digital agriculture in Italy.
Anaïs Varo Barranco
is a lecturer in Political Science and a researcher for the Horizon Europe project Reschool. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics, Institutions, and Public Policies from the University of Girona, and a Master's in Citizenship and Human Rights from the University of Barcelona. She has conducted international research at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (Mexico), Ecofys (Netherlands), and Northeastern University (USA) as a Fulbright Scholar in 2019-2020. Her research interests include sustainable urban development, energy commoning, energy communities, citizen engagement, and energy justice.
Marko Funkl
is currently serving his second term as Mayor of Hrastnik. He has put green transition and social inclusion at the heart of the development of this former mining town. Before taking office as Mayor, he was involved in the trade union and cooperative movement for many years and was generally active in the social field. This year, the first cooperative self-sustaining community power plant was built on the roof of a primary school in Hrastnik, paving the way for the development of community energy solutions in Slovenia.
Giustina Selvelli
is an anthropologist, writer and activist from the University of Ljubljana. Her work deals with issues concerning vulnerable ethnic minorities in the wide Eastern European space, with a special sensitivity towards endangered languages and environments.
Marissa García-Lamarca
is an Associate Senior Lecturer at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Sweden. Her research unpacks housing injustices and urban green inequalities, where she considers both political economic/financial processes and situated, everyday lived experience as ways to help imagine and enact more emancipatory, just urban futures.
Vishwas Satgar
is an Associate Professor of International Relations, editor of the Democratic Marxism Series and principal investigator for Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a veteran activist and co-founder of the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and Climate Justice Charter Movement. His recent book is titled: A Love Letter to the Many – Arguments for Transformative Left Politics in South Africa.
Lavinia Steinfort
is a feminist socialist, political geographer and researcher at the Transnational Institute. She is the Coordinator of TNI’s Public Alternatives project, which focuses on (re)municipalisation of public services, a just transition towards energy democracy and transforming finance for the 99%. Her latest publications are titled ‘Green’ Multinationals Exposed, Energy Transition Mythbusters and the Progressive Public Procurement Toolkit.
Chris Vrettos
works for REScoop.eu, the European Federation of Energy Cooperatives, and Electra Energy (Greece). Both organisations promote the active engagement of citizens in renewable energy production in Europe. He has worked on multiple research programs as an assistant, on topics such as the EU Green Deal and degrowth. He’s interested in international climate politics and journalism and has attended multiple UNFCCC COPs.
Gareth Dale
teaches politics at Brunel University. His books include several on the GDR and Eastern Europe, several on the life and work of Karl Polanyi, as well as edited volumes on green growth, international migration, and revolutions in the neoliberal age. His essays on green growth, degrowth, and the green transition have appeared in The Conversation, The Ecologist, Truthout, The Green European Journal, Open Democracy, Spectre, Jacobin, and International Socialist Review.
Martin Valinger
is a Young Researcher at Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture. Primarily studying the urban resilience of Adriatic port cities, his broader research interests lie at the intersection of urban transformations, strategic planning, and citizen participation. He is engaged in various local initiatives, advocating for integrated urban development, and providing support to self-organized local communities.
Mariano Féliz
holds a PhD in Economics (Université de Paris XIII/Nord) and in Social Sciences (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina). He works as a Researcher at the IdIHCS/CONICET-UNLP, Argentina, and as a Professor at the Department of Sociology (UNLP). He is also fellow del International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) in Berlin. His latest publication include the papers “Beyond the Green New Deal? Dependency, racial capitalism and struggles for a radical ecological transition in Argentina” (co-authored with Daiana Melón) and “Unequal exchange and the Marxist theory of dependency. Reclaiming the debate”.
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Kai Heron
is a Lecturer in Political Ecology and a Co-Director of Abundance, a research and action centre pursuing the expansion of the commons. Kai is a co-editor of the De Gruyter Handbook of Degrowth and co-author of the forthcoming Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green and Democratic Future.
Danijela Dolenec
currently serves as Deputy Mayor of Zagreb on behalf of Možemo!She is Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb. Her book Democratic Institutions and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Europe (2013), received the National Science Award, while her most recent work on social movements and political parties in Southeast Europe has appeared in East European Politics and European Journal of Industrial Relations. More information on her work is available at www.dolenec.hr
Organizers
Contact
- info@politicalecology-ljubljana.si
Links
Co-funders
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.
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