INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECOLOGY
PROGRAM 2026
Monday 29.6.
DAY ONE
10:00 Registration + Coffee
Participants will be welcomed by a representative of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Andrej Lukšič and Boštjan Remic will address the audience on behalf of the organizing team.
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”.
13:00 Lunch
Rather than treating self-sufficiency as a coherent or universally progressive concept, the discussion asks how and why it has become a site of ideological divergence and conflict.
What kinds of futures are imagined through calls for greater self-sufficiency? Who is included in these visions — and who is excluded? The panel discussion is meant to spark a debate that reaches from the ideological foundations of ideas of self-sufficiency to possible ways forward. With our expert panelists we will try to unpack the dilemmas and incongruities of the field.
What are the open research questions? How can we understand the shift in climate/ecological politics and how to interpret it in the context of rising geopolitical tensions? How can we think about self-sufficiency in an internationalist way?
Participants:
TBA
Moderator: Jonas Sonnenschein, Umanotera
Self-sufficiency is impossible without people who run community projects and carry out support activities. The purpose of the introductory workshop is manifold: to help summer school participants establish initial contact with one another, learn about the areas of self-sufficiency or specific projects their fellow participants are working on, and consider how they might collaborate on these in the future.
Moderator: Saša Kralj, Umanotera
At the end of the first day, we invite you to meet us over drinks and snacks. It will take place in the Faculty lobby or in the garden next to the Faculty (weather permitting).
Tuesday 30.6.
DAY TWO
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.
10:30 Coffee Break
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.
12:30 Lunch
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?
15:30 Coffee Break
Doctoral students will briefly present the main theses and ideas of their work or articles.
Names of the presenters will be announced before the start of the Summer School.
Moderator: Ana Hafner
The Poster Fair is a space for the presentation and exchange of ideas, which participants will present in the form of posters. Posters are open to everyone (a template will be sent to those wishing to attend) and Master's students who are part of the accredited programme will present their work through these posters. The visual presentations are used as cues for more detailed explorations and discussions.
Submit your poster here.
Join EREA for a board game evening featuring games that build practical skills for dealing with climate change challenges ranging from cooperation and resource management to spotting greenwashing and imagining more hopeful futures. The games are part of the Climate4All project and are available online for free as print-and-play.
Contact: zavod.erea@gmail.com
No. of participants: up to 5 per table - with a max of 20 participants
Come and join us!
More: https://climate4all.org/
In the evenings, we will continue our discussions and debates in a more relaxed envionment. Come grab a beer or lemonade at the SEM café.
↳ Location
Wednesday 1.7.
DAY THREE
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.
10:30 Coffee Break
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.
12:30 Lunch
The roundtable will shed light on various aspects of the sustainable transition of the agri-food system and present best practices and experiences from different contexts. The discussion will bring together natural science and social science perspectives and raise questions about what kind of food system we need and how to get there. The speakers will draw from different levels of action—ranging from practices at the farm and local community levels to the design of broader systemic solutions and public policies—and will explore how these levels can be connected to facilitate a transition to a just and sustainable food system.
Participants:
Miha Curk: an assistant professor at the Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Ljubljana. At heart, he is a dedicated farmer: together with his wife, he runs a regenerative farm in the Dolenjska region, where they develop sustainable approaches to farming.
Andrea Ghelfi: a researcher in the field of environmental and territorial sociology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Florence.
Lindsey Wuisan: a resource justice and new economies campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, specialised in environmental policies and systems change. For almost 2 decades, she has worked on a variety of sustainability topics, including circular economy and sustainable food systems.
Moderator: Živa Kavka Gobbo, Focus
15:30 Coffee Break
Doctoral students will briefly present the main theses and ideas of their work or articles.
Names of the presenters will be announced before the start of the Summer School.
Moderator: Ana Hafner
Participants will decide on the content and the course of the discussions. Every year, during the summer school, some ideas come up and we run out of time to look at them in more detail. We will provide three or four rooms and identify a couple of tentative topics for the discussions during the first two days, to help you find your way around and decide on one of the spaces.
In the evenings, we will continue our discussions and debates in a more relaxed envionment. Come grab a beer or lemonade at the SEM café.
↳ Location
Thursday 2.7.
DAY FOUR
Cultivating Gaia: Peasant Return, Food Networks, Community Technoscience and Socio-Ecological Trasversalities. Notes from Agroecological Movements in Italy.
The lecturer 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.
10:30 Coffee Break
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.
12:00 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.
Based on the talks and discussions during the event, we will extract some key theses that will serve as a framework for the final discussion.
Moderator: Boštjan Remic
14:00 Lunch
Once the official part of the summer school is over, we offer a variety of afternoon activities: a feminist walking tour, a political-ecological bike tour and an evening hanging out at Ljubljana's hippest place.
Explore Ljubljana and the surrounding area, and spend one last chance to socialize with your fellow participants.
Registration is required: https://forms.gle/1Hoq7rYMH3UddEhL6
ULRICH BRAND
is Professor of International Politics at the University of Vienna. His research interests include international politics, critical analyses of globalization and its political regulation, and the intersections of state, economy, and ecology. Together with Markus Wissen, Brand introduced the concept of the imperial mode of living. Their latest book is titled Capitalism at the Limit: A Political Ecology of a World in Crisis (Verso).
HIBIST WENDEMU KASSA
is a Research Associate in Community, Adult & Workers’ Education at the University of Johannesburg. She is also a member of the Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester. She has published on artisanal mining policy and social reproduction. She also edited a Special Issue on African Resource Sovereignty: Development or Environmental Vandalism? in the New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy published by the Institute for AfricanAlternatives.
MANUELA ZECHNER
is a researcher, educator and organiser. She co-founded the Common Ecologies school, produces the Earthcare Fieldcast and is affiliated with the Centre for Applied Ecological Thinking at Copenhagen University. Her book The Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress, Plantation and Patriarchy has just been published by Pluto Press.
MORGAN ODY
je majhna pridelovalka iz Bretanje v Franciji. Je glavna koordinatorka svetovnega kmečkega gibanja La Via Campesina. Aktivno se zavzema za prehransko suverenost, agroekologijo, pravice kmetov, agrarno reformo in ljudski feminizem. Prav tako si prizadeva za vzpostavitev novega mednarodnega trgovinskega okvira, ki temelji na prehranski suverenosti.
MARTÍN LALLANA
is an ecological transition officer of the LAB trade union (Basque Country). In this role, he coordinates the union’s approach to labour disputes and industrial policy in relation to the ecological crisis. With a background in industrial engineering and renewable energy, he worked as a researcher at the University of Zaragoza. He has produced reports on the future demand for metals for Spain’s energy transition, alongside measures for sufficiency and recycling (Ecologistas en Acción, 2021; Friends of the Earth Spain, 2023). He produced reports on socio-ecological transformation in the automotive sector in the Basque Country (Cooperativa Garúa, 2023) and proposals for productive reconversion for a Stellantis stamping plant facing closure (Mecaner, 2024). He is an eco-socialist militant, a member of the editorial team of the magazine Viento Sur, and has published numerous articles on strategic discussion.
ANDREA GHELFI
is a researcher in environmental and territorial sociology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Florence. His studies and publications combine an interest in agroecology and ecological movements with theoretical research on the emergence of a new ecological materialism. Among his publications, we can mention La Condizione Ecologica and his editorial work on Connessioni ecologiche. His publications in English include articles Ungovernable Earth: Resurgence, Translocal Infrastructures and More-than-Social Movements and Ecological Transition: What It Is and How to Do It.
HENRIQUE TAHAN NOVAES
is Professor of Philosophy and Sciences at UNESP (São Paulo State University), Brazil. He teaches and researches at the intersection of philosophy, social science, and education. He published Associated Labor and Production in the Age of Barbarism: Education Beyond Capital, a critical examination of associated labour, self-management practices and the potential for education beyond capitalist frameworks. He is also co-author of Destructive Production, Agroecology and Schools of Agroecology in Brazil, which explores struggles against destructive production and the development of agroecological alternatives within Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement.
IRENE SOTIROPOULOU
is a lawyer and heterodox economist and also author of “Machines against Measures” (2023). She specialises in ecological, feminist, solidarity and non-capitalist economics, heterodox theories and practices about money and finance, grassroots economic practices and theories, non- monetary economics, and small production and distribution modes. For her research in economics she has been awarded fellowships by the GEM- IWG/GEM-Europe and World Social Science (UNESCO) Fellowship programs and a Newton Mobility Grant by the British Academy.
ORGANISERS
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 Re:boot project is co-financed by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the European Commission.
The author(s) are solely responsible for the views and information expressed in this document, which do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission or other co-funders.
English (UK) 
Slovenščina