Written by Yavor Tarinski To take no part in the running of the community’s affairs is to be either a beast or a god! ~Aristotle[1] When exploring social change, one has to examine all aspects of it. Developing strategies and institutions that will help facilitate the coming into being and functioning of a democratic and […]
Read More Re-Embedding Citizenship in Revolutionary Politics
Urban researcher Nikos Vrantsis interviews Yavor Tarinski, author of Common Futures: Social Transformation and Political Ecology [co-authored with Alexandros Schismenos] (Black Rose Books, 2021), on the current bureaucratic state of cities and the democratic perspectives offered by autonomous urban movements. Nikos Vrantsis: Day by day, state oppression turns into the new normal. Governmemts invested in […]
Read More Cities beyond bureaucracy: Exploring commons-based strategies
Video from the book launch of “Enlightenment and Ecology: The Legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21st Century”, edited by TRISE member Yavor Tarinski. The event took place on 14th of January, date that marks 100 years from the birth of Murray Bookchin, founding theorist of social ecology and one of the most profound […]
Read More Video from “Enlightenment and Ecology” book launch
Written by TRISE member Yavor Tarinski. Originally published on Aftoleksi, here. The greatest achievement of these human beings was the creation of cities. Dimitrios Roussopoulos[1] As Hannah Arendt has suggested, “To be political, to live in a polis, meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through force and violence“[2]. […]
Read More Public Assemblies in Early Cities
Written by Yavor Tarinski The “population problem” has a Phoenix-like existence: it rises from the ashes at least every generation and sometimes every decade or so. Murray Bookchin[1] The term “overpopulation” often comes unchallenged, or there is almost always a reaction if an attempt to challenge it is being made. Even supposedly radical people can […]
Read More Overpopulation Scaremongering and Ecofascism
Written by Yavor Tarinski The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.[1] Murray Bookchin The question of energy is of crucial importance when we discuss the future of our cities. Our contemporary heavily urbanized societies consume huge amounts of energy, which is being derived through environmentally […]
Read More On why nuclear energy is incompatible with direct democracy
Written by Yavor Tarinski Introduction With the rise of cities, a major power shift is occurring this century across the planet in both economic and political terms. Dimitrios Roussopoulos[1] Nowadays the importance of the city is increasing, not only because of the fact that the majority of the human population is currently living […]
Read More City, Municipality, Commons: Rebel Cities in the Neoliberal Age
Written by Yavor Tarinski Introduction Life on this planet, as we know it, is a result of fragile environmental conditions that the contemporary predominant neoliberal system has already began to alter. Capitalism and its doctrine of unlimited economic growth seems to completely neglect this dependency and continues to violently exploit nature for the benefit of […]
Read More Commons, Social Ecology and the Transcending of Capitalism
Interview by Antonis Broumas and Yavor Tarinski Some believe that the commons are incompatible with commodity markets. Others claim that markets and commons may form mutually beneficial relations with each other. What are your own views on this issue? I think it is entirely possible for markets and commons to “play nicely together,” but only […]
Read More The Future is a “Pluriverse”- An Interview with David Bollier on the Potential of the Commons
Written by Yavor Tarinski The apocalyptic images that we see in contemporary fictional cinema and literature seem to be not that far from materializing and in real life. Talks about the end of life as we know it are beginning to make more sense as information about the possible consequences of the unfolding global warming […]
Read More Our best chance for solving the climate crisis — direct democracy and equality