Abstract
While climate change has centered attention on impending challenges for our planet’s future, we focus on consumer capitalist practice as cause of climate catastrophes and its adverse impact on sensitive ecosystems, nonhuman animals, and marginalized human beings. Feminist and Marxist critiques of white supremacy, heteronormativity, essentialism, biologism, and religious dogma are deeply connected to critiques of capitalism. Inequality is inherent to capitalist endeavors, thus we discuss how we might resist the increasing disconnection, alienation, and individualism caused by consumptive capitalist praxis/habitus to create regenerative community—that is adaptive and life-giving. When considering the details of what such communities look like we reach into the imaginary, recognizing that such community is very different from what has heretofore been conceived. While important connections are made with past ways of living that were regenerative (indigenous communities) and turn to exceptional communities in our present (Plum Village) that advocate for non-exploitative and non-oppressive ways for beings to live together (interbeing), nevertheless these fall short. So we imagine what community-sans-capitalism might look like. In so doing, we embrace radical hope; that is, hope that points to a future ideal, goodness, way of living in community, but without concepts/frameworks with which to completely understand it. What strategies can we employ to create community in increasingly disparate (and desperate) lives? How can we establish social systems that posit diversity as necessity for future community and survival? How can we develop healthy communities that are adaptive, encompass the goals of synergy, collaboration, open source dynamic responsive and emergent mutualism?
Presenters
Charlotte KunkelProfessor, Sociology and Identity Studies, Luther College, Iowa, United States Scott Hurley
Associate Professor, Identity Studies Department and Religion Department, Luther College, Iowa, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Community Diversity and Governance
KEYWORDS
Radical Hope, Capitalism, Regenerative Imagine Community
