Practicing Social Ecology: From Bookchin to Rojava and Beyond

by Eleanor Finley

How can we harness society's potential to change the trajectory of the climate crisis? So many of us feel helpless in the face of corporate environmental destruction, however, in Practicing Social Ecology Eleanor Finley shows that there is an amazing well of untapped power in our communities, we just need to know how to use it.
Drawing from her experience of working in democratic ecology movements from the revolution in Rojava to Barcelona's municipalist movement and beyond, she shows how to develop assemblies, confederations, study groups, and permaculture projects.
Looking to history, she maps out how social ecologists, such as Murray Bookchin, have led inspirational struggles around climate and energy, agriculture and biotechnology, globalisation and economic inequality. This guide is perfect for anyone curious about how to challenge unending capitalist growth through the democratic power of social ecology.

Genres: Politics

216 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2025

Reviews

[Irma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly readable introduction to social ecology. I was mostly interested in this book because of the concrete, real-life examples. I thought the examples were described in a helpful way and pointed me in new directions for further reading. I would for sure recommend this book to people interested in social ecology and will recommend it when talking about social ecology with people in my life.

[Kev Nickells · Rating 5 out of 5]

The strapline 'from Bookchin to Rojava and beyond...' is the interesting bit for me - I'm keen to read more about Rojava on account of having a faint idea that they're doing democracy right at the moment. Bookchin I should know more about, as he's bang in the middle of what I see of debates on ecology, environmentalism, and anarchism.

So you could say this book is a bit of a 'state of the nation' in terms of contemporary leftist practice. There's a series of imperatives at play here, and ones that are familiar - the problem of the nation state, the creation of non-national groupings, the organisation thereof, and the present climate catastrophe. Finley weaves together the subjects deftly and there's a decent heft to her case studies in specific subject areas (social ecology, eco-communities, assembly-based democracy, democratic confederalism). And if that sounds like it's going to be a book of abstract theory - it's resolutely not. While there's plenty of theory, there's a decent amount of case studies and interviews to pick out how movements like the PKK in Rojava work.

It's subtly fairly feminist as well - perhaps less overtly dealing in feminist theory but certainly dappling the importance of including minority voices. Importantly, that's not limited to demographic representation but also noting the modes of democracy - for instance, the tendency for traditional 'debate' to take a combative tone, while noting a more feminist take whereby people's perspectives are reconciled to larger projects.

Finally the case is made for democratic confederalism - a form of direct democracy that looks close to the federalism of 20th century anarchism. The key being that the studies Finley highlights are ones that seek to redress power imbalances and return land rights to natives. There's plenty here that extends beyond (traditional) political organisation - generating charters which guarantee equity among members could be taken to any organisation of people, from book clubs to event promotion.

I'd stress this is also a book which does contain theory but it's by no means dry or unreadable - I'd say it has an academic integrity but it's a long way from impenetrable theory, and perhaps most encouraging of all, it dares to be optimistic about the future of leftist organisation in the fact of climate catastrophe.

[David White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat, informative introduction to an intriguing, visionary and overlooked strand of the radical left which seeks to re-orient politics around face-to-face assemblies at the most local level. This book explains the key ideas of Murray Bookchin and Abdullah Öcalan, including concepts such as social ecology and democratic confederalism.

Later chapters have case studies where these ideas have been tried, including in Barcelona, Mexico, Mississippi State and especially Rojava, the Kurdish-majority corner of Syria. The author brings her own experience to the table, having visited the Kurdish heartlands and participated in the assemblies of Occupy Wall Street. This book doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of organising assemblies, however.

My only complaint (beyond editing: "There is no is no...") is that I'd like to have read more, really. The author admits that Rojava's assemblies are rather ad hoc, but I'd have liked more about how this intriguing experiment works. And for all its successes, why didn't Barcelona en Comú fully return to the heights of its 2015 breakthrough? But other than that, highly recommended.

[Paul Chislett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A call to get organized with humility, purpose, self critique, and study