Samuel Alexander

This book presents a series of urban investigations undertaken in the metropolis of Melbourne. It is based on the idea that ‘enchantment’ as an affective state is important to ethical and political engagement. Alexander and Gleeson argue that a sense of enchantment can give people the impulse to care and engage in an increasingly troubled world, whereas disenchantment can lead to resignation. Applying and extending this theory to the urban landscape, the authors walk their home city with eyes open to the possibility of seeing and experiencing the industrial city in different ways. This unique methodology, described as ‘urban tramping’, positions the authors as freethinking freewalkers of the city, encumbered only with the duty to look through the delusions of industrial capitalism towards its troubled, contradictory soul. These urban investigations were disrupted midway by COVID-19, a plague that ended up confirming the book’s central thesis of a fractured modernity vulnerable to various internal contradictions.

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

What if these hands I have aren't mineThese lips, these eyes, my arrival to lifeIf I didn't write with my right but instead with my leftIf the secrets I hold aren't mine to be keptWhat if my life belonged to someone elseGREY is a collection of poems paired with semi-nude photography dealing with the darker times in life. How we sometimes doubt ourselves, question our own existence, and even create fantasy worlds to escape from the depressive states we find ourselves in.

"Death for Gaia" is a philosophical story about a group of scientists who create and release a biological weapon they call 'Hemlock-42'. This virus is designed with a single goal in mind: to eradicate most of humanity as a means of preserving what remains of planetary ecosystems and the declining diversity of species. Less than ten percent of humanity survives the pandemic. Forty-six years after this momentous disruption, various tribes of the After World have gathered, in this period of fragile but renewed stability, to discuss the justifiability of the acts that led to the Great Die-Off. Professor Durruk Senjen, the sole surviving activist who released Hemlock-42, has been called to defend his acts and face judgement. Note from the authors: Readers may draw parallels between the fictional virus described in this book and the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020. Our manuscript was complete and under review in July 2019 and thus any similarities are purely coincidental. We offer this book with condolences to those who have lost loved ones to the pandemic.

Industrial civilisation has no future. It requires limitless economic growth on a finite planet. The reckless combustion of fossil fuels means that Earth's climate is changing disastrously, in ways that cannot be resolved by piecemeal reform or technological innovation. Sooner rather than later this global capitalist system will come to an end, destroyed by its own ecological contradictions. Unless humanity does something beautiful and unprecedented, the ending of industrial civilisation will take the form of collapse, which could mean a harrowing die-off of billions of people. This book is for those ready to accept the full gravity of the human predicament - and to consider what in the world is to be done. How can humanity mindfully navigate the inevitable descent ahead? Two critical thinkers here remove the rose-tinted glasses of much social and environmental commentary. With unremitting realism and yet defiant positivity, they engage each other in uncomfortable conversations about the end of Empire and what lies beyond.

An inspiring collection of the biographies of previously marginalized people whose stories deserve to be told and celebrated. Discover the fascinating stories behind 38 queer icons, all of them ground-breakers, risk-takers and game-changers. Whether they are activists, sportspeople, scientists or superstars, every one of these people has been a trailblazer in their field, and deserves to have their achievements celebrated the world over. Be empowered and inspired by their extraordinary life stories, their awesome achievements and their wonder-words of wisdom with this pocketbook of remarkable people, and prepare to be introduced to your new superheroes.

This book addresses a central dilemma of the urban age: how to make the vast suburban landscapes that ring the globe safe and sustainable in the face of planetary ecological crisis. The authors argue that degrowth, a planned contraction of economic overshoot, is the only feasible principle for suburban renewal. They depart from the anti-suburban sentiment of much environmentalism to show that existing suburbia can be the centre-ground of transition to a new social dispensation based on the principle of self-limitation. The book offers a radical new urban imaginary, that of degrowth suburbia, which can arise Phoenix like from the increasingly stressed cities of the affluent Global North and guide urbanisation in a world at risk. This means dispensing with much contemporary green thinking, including blind faith in electric vehicles and high-density urbanism, and accepting the inevitability and the benefits of planned energy descent. A radical but necessary vision for the times.

This book addresses a central dilemma of the urban age: how to make the vast suburban landscapes that ring the globe safe and sustainable in the face of planetary ecological crisis. The authors argue that degrowth, a planned contraction of economic overshoot, is the only feasible principle for suburban renewal. They depart from the anti-suburban sentiment of much environmentalism to show that existing suburbia can be the centre-ground of transition to a new social dispensation based on the principle of self-limitation. The book offers a radical new urban imaginary, that of degrowth suburbia, which can arise Phoenix like from the increasingly stressed cities of the affluent Global North and guide urbanisation in a world at risk. This means dispensing with much contemporary green thinking, including blind faith in electric vehicles and high-density urbanism, and accepting the inevitability and the benefits of planned energy descent. A radical but necessary vision for the times.

Carbon civilisation is powered predominately by finite fossil fuels and with each passing day it becomes harder to increase or even maintain current supply. Our one-off fossil energy inheritance is but a brief anomaly in the evolution of the human story, a momentary energy spike from the perspective of deep time. Today humanity faces the dual crises of fossil fuel depletion and climate change, both of which are consequences of the modern world's fundamental reliance on the energy abundance provided by fossil energy sources. Can renewable energy replace the fossil energy foundations of carbon civilisation? This book examines these issues and presents a narrative linking energy and society that maintains we should be preparing for renewable futures neither of energy abundance nor scarcity, but rather energy sufficiency. For industrial societies, this means navigating energy descent futures.

'Wild Democracy is a daring and compelling collection of essays that explores the theory and practice of moving towards an equitable, post-growth society, and defends an alternative, post-consumerist account of human flourishing. Thoreau believed that 'in wildness lies the preservation of the world' and Samuel Alexander has shown us how we do this in our backyards, our local communities and our everyday practices. He has done Thoreau proud.'- Robyn Eckersley, author of 'The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty' 'Building bridges between different schools of thought, Samuel Alexander outlines an alternative to the nightmare of a growth society racing towards collapse, articulating various post-capitalist approaches, between anarcho-marxism, wild democracy and spirituality. In doing so this book attempts to overcome the old divide between reformism and revolution.'- Serge Latouche, author of 'Farewell to Growth' 'Wild Democracy: Degrowth, Permaculture, and the Simpler Way' is Samuel Alexander's third volume of collected essays, following the publication of 'Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits' (2015) and 'Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever' (2015). He is also author of 'Deface the Currency: The Lost Dialogues of Diogenes' (2016), 'Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau's Alternative Economics' (2016), and 'Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation' (2013), as well as being editor of 'Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture' (2009) and co-editor of 'Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future' (2014) and 'Words for Awakening: Voices of Inspired Revolt' (2017). For more details see: www.samuelalexander.info

What role might art need to play in the transition beyond consumer capitalism? Can 'culture jamming' contribute to the necessary revolution in consciousness? And might art be able to provoke social change in ways that rational argument and scientific evidence cannot? In this stimulating new book, "Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth", degrowth scholar Samuel Alexander explores these questions, both in theory and practice. He begins with a novel theoretical defence of art and aesthetic interventions as activity that is necessary to effective social and political activism, and concludes by presenting over one hundred 'culture jamming' artworks from a range of contributors that challenge the status quo and expand the horizons of what alternatives are possible.

What role might art need to play in the transition beyond consumer capitalism? Can 'culture jamming' contribute to the necessary revolution in consciousness? And might art be able to provoke social change in ways that rational argument and scientific evidence cannot? In this stimulating new book, "Compost Capitalism: Art and Aesthetics at the End of Empire," degrowth scholar Samuel Alexander explores these questions by curating a stunning array of 'culture jamming' images from a range of counter-cultural artists. By turns provocative and inspiring, the reader is exposed to art and images that challenge the status quo and expand the horizons of what alternatives are possible. This book is an abridged, image-based version of "Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth," in which Samuel Alexander advances the degrowth movement by establishing the theoretical foundations of degrowth aesthetics.

In this second volume of collected essays, Samuel Alexander develops the provocative ideas contained in "Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits". Industrial civilisation promotes mistaken ideas of freedom and wellbeing, while placing unsupportable burdens on the biosphere. This being so, Alexander argues that the richest nations need to transcend consumer culture and initiate a 'degrowth' process of planned economic contraction. To achieve this, he shows that we need to build a post-capitalist politics and economics from the grassroots up, restructuring our societies to promote far 'simpler' conceptions of the good life, based on notions of sufficiency, frugality, appropriate technology, and local economy. --------'With the vision of a prophet, the eloquence of a poet, the forensic detail of the scholar, and the engaged passion of an activist, Samuel Alexander offers critique, analysis and strategy for a post-growth society beyond carbon-fuelled, consumer capitalism. It is a truism that 'where there is no vision the people perish'. This book in its comprehensive scope presents a challenging, provocative and absolutely necessary vision, synthesising theoretical and practical considerations related to understanding the current crisis of 'the human condition', and offering informed suggestions as to what comes after the unsustainable growth economy. They say knowledge is power, if so, arm yourself by reading and (re)acting to and on this book, notes from the 'front line' of our crisis-ridden but self-transforming present.'- John Barry, author of The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability 'Impressively researched, eloquently argued, and deeply engaging, Samuel Alexander's work sits at the forefront of the degrowth movement. More than just a powerful critique of the capitalist growth economy, this book highlights the promise - and the necessity - of localised, ecological economies as the only means of adequately confronting the crises that are converging upon us. At times his vision of the future may be challenging, but it is never despairing, and ultimately the reader comes away uplifted and inspired. Alexander convinces us that less can indeed be more.'- Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of Ancient Futures and producer of The Economics of Happiness

Calling for a sufficiency-based culture of 'simple living' to underpin a macroeconomic framework of 'degrowth', Samuel Alexander draws on a remarkable breadth of economic, political, ecological, and sociological literature to explore the radical implications of living in an age of limits. Written with clarity, rigour, and insight, this book will both challenge and inspire. 'Prosperous Descent is a creative and important contribution to a movement with surprising momentum, one that challenges the very notions of progress and wellbeing on which our societies are constructed. It is a radical challenge in the best sense of the term. We can all learn a great deal from Samuel Alexander, both about our societies and about how to live our lives.' - Clive Hamilton, author of Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough and Growth Fetish'This timely book reminds us that the good life is the simple life; a life within limits. It is a truly interdisciplinary volume, covering topics from the macroeconomics of a planned degrowth, to the ecology of planetary limits, to the sociology of voluntary simplifiers. A must read.' - Giorgos Kallis, co-editor of Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era'Consumer capitalist society is characterised by a deep feeling of anxiety and isolation. It persists by inculcating a deep sense of disempowerment and diluting our radical imagination. The strength of this book lies in its ability to delicately weave together not only the theory but also the practice of simplicity. It carries with it the moral weight of generations of people who have demonstrated a different way of living and the shallowness of consumer society.'- Peter D. Burdon, author of Earth Jurisprudence and co-editor of Wild Law: In Practice