Transforming Capitalism: Paradox or Opportunity? A dialogue between Rebecca Henderson and Julia Ott moderated by Lara Monticelli

MPP Transformative Talks Series organized by the research cluster “Transformative Economies and Societies” The times we are living in are characterized by multiple, simultaneous crises at the ecological, economic, social and, more recently, health level. The disastrous effects produced by this fatal synchronicity have brought to the realization that, if…

&Utopia Lecture Series – Kim Stanley Robinson on “Ecology and Utopia”, Q&A moderated by Lara Monticelli

& Utopia Online public lecture series about utopian thinking and practices in a contemporary world characterised by multiple crises During the Fall of 2021 these prominent scholars, intellectuals, activists and writers will explore questions such as: What is the relation between utopia and crisis? How does utopianism offer new routes…

Ruptures, Transformations, Continuities. Rethinking Infrastructures and Ecology – Young Researchers Conference 2021

Organizations, institutions as well as everyday life are permeated and characterized by a variety of interests and objectives regarding sustainability. They all relate to sustainability as a strong normative point of reference. However, this complexity of interests and goals associated with the concept of sustainability inevitably gives rise to conflicts,…

Can we Experiment Ourselves out of the Crisis? Scope, Limits and Blind Spots of Urban, Experimental Responses to Climate Change

Convenors: Margaret Haderer, Hauke Dannemann, Ingolfur Blühdorn This international, 2-day research workshop is concerned with understanding, locating, and theorizing current portrayals of the city as a key laboratory for tackling social-ecological crises, climate change in particular. Urban, real-life experiments in climate-friendly living and producing are commonly presented as promising components…

International Research Colloquium on Ecovillage and Sustainable Lifestyles – the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN)

On September 30th, I have been invited by the organisers of the International Colloquium on Ecovillage and Sustainable Lifestyles to give an online lecture titled “Why We Need to Talk about Capitalism While Doing Ecovillage Research”. The recorded version of my talk is accessible through the course platform of the…

8th International Degrowth Conference – Caring Communities for Radical Change

8th International Degrowth Conference – Caring Communities for Radical Change Roundtable: Decolonial Feminism and its transformative possibilities by Women on The Verge Collective, Europe This is a roundtable with members of the collective Women on the Verge. We will explore decolonial feminisms proposals that propose that the transcendence of racial…

Podcast Episode for FutureFramedTV – Why we need alternatives to capitalism

In this podcast I have been interviewed by Dr Alice Krozer (Colegio de Mexico) host of the FutureFramedTV series on inequalities. FutureFramedTV is the video platform of the online project Traces.Dreams. Together with Alice, we discussed about what defines capitalism, its relation to crises, and what alternatives within or outside of capitalism…

SASE 2021 – After Covid? Critical Conjunctures and Contingent Pathways of Contemporary Capitalism

You can browse the 2021 program of the research network “Alternatives to Capitalism” by clicking here.   SASE Conference 2021 theme description: The Covid-19 pandemic challenges all kinds of taken-for-granted assumptions, within and between contemporary capitalist societies. Not only is the Covid-19 pandemic predicted by the IMF to lead to the…

Workshop at the transition town of San Lazzaro and visit to the school of permaculture

Together with the students and the teachers of the Master “Saperi in Transizione” (organised by the Universities of Verona, Trento and Parma) we visited the transition town of San Lazzaro in the outskirts of Bologna and the school of permaculture held at the communal gardens “Le Serre” in the city of…

Workshop at the ecological village of Granara (Parma, Italy)

Together with the students and the teachers of the Master “Saperi in Transizione” (organised by the Universities of Verona, Bologna and Parma) we visited the eco-village of Granara in the Italian Appenines, guided by one of its founders, Dario Sabbadini. During the workshop, Dario accompanied us through a journey across different…

Prefigurazione e Utopie del Vivere in Comune – Prefiguration and Utopias of Collective Living

For info about the Master program, which is organized jointly by the University of Verona, the University of Trento and the University of Parma, visit this link: https://comune-info.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Master-Saperi-in-Transizione-Brochure.pdf

Capitalism, Its Crises and Its Alternatives: Understanding Real Utopias – Danish Science Festival

The Danish Science Festival is an annual week-long festival taking place in April. The festival is comprised af more then 700 lectures and events around the country. The festival attract around 70,000 visitors every year. On April 29th, I have been invited to give an online lecture to the students at Skovskolen,…

On The Necessity of Prefiguration – Lund University

The lecture examines the origin and meanings of prefiguration. Prefigurative politics entails a holistic approach to social change, it focuses on social reproduction and the preservation of life rather than solely economic production. The case of Occupy Wall Street is discussed to show that a growing number of contemporary social movements…

Capitalism, Its Crises and Its Alternatives: Understanding Real Utopias

To confront the multiple crises characterising contemporary capitalism, we need a historical understanding of its functioning and its elements of instability. The debate on capitalism came back to the fore due to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Today, more than ten years later, capitalism is still the dominant system and…

Le Molteplici Crisi del Capitalismo Contemporaneo

Sabato 12 dicembre alle ore 18:30 in diretta streaming. Per affrontare la crisi ambientale attuale occorre analizzare il sistema economico oggi dominante sul pianeta e i suoi elementi di instabilità. Ecco perchè ha senso guardare al capitalismo contemporaneo in chiave storica per avere una visione di insieme delle molteplici forme…

Experimental Practice. Technoscience, Alterontology and More-Than Social Movements

The research network Politics Ontologies Ecologies (POE) directed by Professor Luigi Pellizzoni organises a yearly symposium to discuss, together with international speakers, a relevant publication. In 2020, the book selected for the symposium is “Experimental Practice. Technoscience, Alterontology and More-Than Social Movements” (2018, Duke University Press) by Dimitris Papadopoulos (University…

Lecture on “Ecovillages”, course “Sociology of Food Consumption”

Presentation of New Master Program “Saperi in Transizione”

The Universities of Verona, Trento and Parma are collaborating to launch a new joint Master program titled “Saperi in Transizione”. This event is part of a series of presentations aimed at presenting the Master, its contents and its goals to potentially interested students. I am going to teach a module…