TY - JOUR
T1 - Radical social innovations and the spatialities of grassroots activism: navigating pathways for tackling inequality and reinventing the commons
AU - Apostolopoulou, Elia
AU - Bormpoudakis, Dimitris
AU - Chatzipavlidis, Alexandros
AU - Cortes-Vazquez, Jose A.
AU - Florea, Ioana
AU - Gearey, Mary
AU - Levy, Julyan
AU - Loginova, Julia
AU - Ordner, James
AU - Partridge, Tristan
AU - Pizarro, Alejandra
AU - Rhoades, Hannibal
AU - Symons, Kate
AU - Veríssimo, Céline
AU - Wahby, Noura
N1 - Funding Information:
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Jose A. Cortes-Vazquez, Department of Sociology and Communication, University of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Ioana Florea, Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, [email protected]. Dr. Mary Gearey, School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, UK. Email: [email protected]. Julyan Levy, Independent Scholar, UK, [email protected] Dr. Julia Loginova, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences & SMI, University of Queensland, Australia. Email: [email protected]. Dr. James Ordner, Department of Sociology, Humboldt State University, California, USA. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Tristan Partridge, ISBER, University of California Santa Barbara, USA and ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Alejandra Pizarro, EcoHealth & Urban Ecology Laboratory, School of Sciences & Philosophy, Cayetano Heredia University of Peru, and School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, UK. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Hannibal Rhoades, Gaia Foundation, Brighton, UK. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Kate Symons, University of Edinburgh, UK. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Céline Veríssimo, Interdisciplinary Centre of Land, Architecture and Design, Federal University of Latin American Integration, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil and Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Email: [email protected]. Dr. Noura Wahby, Public Policy and Administration Department, American University in Cairo, Egypt. Email: [email protected]. Acknowledgements: Dr. Apostolopoulou has been supported by a Royal Geographical Society Environment and Sustainability Grant (by the Deutsche Post-Stiftung and SUN Institute Environment and Sustainability) entitled "Oil and gas exploration vs. community energy projects: The right to energy justice in post-crisis Greece" and by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), under an HFRI grant entitled "From the 'right to the city' to the 'right to nature': Exploring environmental movements in the era of the Anthropocene as pathways to social-ecological sustainability" (GSRT code 235, KE 275 ELKE). We would like to thank the two reviewers and the JPE editor for their constructive comments and research participants, including communities of struggle and activists from across the South and North, without whom this research would have been impossible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/4/5
Y1 - 2022/4/5
N2 - In this article, by drawing on empirical evidence from twelve case studies from nine countries from across the Global South and North, we ask how radical grassroots social innovations that are part of social movements and struggles can offer pathways for tackling socio-spatial and socio-environmental inequality and for reinventing the commons. We define radical grassroots social innovations as a set of practices initiated by formal or informal community-led initiatives or/and social movements which aim to generate novel, democratic, socially, spatially and environmentally just solutions to address social needs that are otherwise ignored or marginalised. To address our research questions, we draw on the work of Cindi Katz to explore how grassroots innovations relate to practices of resilience, reworking and resistance. We identify possibilities and limitations as well as patterns of spatial practices and pathways of re-scaling and radical praxis, uncovering broadly-shared resemblances across different places. Through this analysis we aim to make a twofold contribution to political ecology and human geography scholarship on grassroots radical activism, social innovation and the spatialities of resistance. First, to reveal the connections between socialenvironmental struggles, emerging grassroots innovations and broader structural factors that cause, enable or limit them. Second, to explore how grassroots radical innovations stemming from place-based community struggles can relate to resistance practices that would not only successfully oppose inequality and the withering of the commons in the short-term, but would also open long-term pathways to alternative modes of social organization, and a new commons, based on social needs and social rights that are currently unaddressed.
AB - In this article, by drawing on empirical evidence from twelve case studies from nine countries from across the Global South and North, we ask how radical grassroots social innovations that are part of social movements and struggles can offer pathways for tackling socio-spatial and socio-environmental inequality and for reinventing the commons. We define radical grassroots social innovations as a set of practices initiated by formal or informal community-led initiatives or/and social movements which aim to generate novel, democratic, socially, spatially and environmentally just solutions to address social needs that are otherwise ignored or marginalised. To address our research questions, we draw on the work of Cindi Katz to explore how grassroots innovations relate to practices of resilience, reworking and resistance. We identify possibilities and limitations as well as patterns of spatial practices and pathways of re-scaling and radical praxis, uncovering broadly-shared resemblances across different places. Through this analysis we aim to make a twofold contribution to political ecology and human geography scholarship on grassroots radical activism, social innovation and the spatialities of resistance. First, to reveal the connections between socialenvironmental struggles, emerging grassroots innovations and broader structural factors that cause, enable or limit them. Second, to explore how grassroots radical innovations stemming from place-based community struggles can relate to resistance practices that would not only successfully oppose inequality and the withering of the commons in the short-term, but would also open long-term pathways to alternative modes of social organization, and a new commons, based on social needs and social rights that are currently unaddressed.
KW - activisme de base
KW - activismo de base
KW - biens communs
KW - commons
KW - comunes
KW - environmental justice
KW - grassroots activism
KW - Innovación social
KW - Innovation sociale
KW - justice environnementale
KW - justice sociale
KW - justicia ambiental
KW - justicia social
KW - mouvements sociaux-environnementaux
KW - movimientos socio-ambientales
KW - readaptación
KW - remaniement
KW - resilience
KW - resiliencia
KW - resistance
KW - resistencia
KW - reworking
KW - résilience
KW - résistance
KW - Social innovation
KW - social justice
KW - socialenvironmental movements
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129571837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2458/JPE.2292
DO - 10.2458/JPE.2292
M3 - Article
SN - 1073-0451
VL - 29
SP - 144
EP - 188
JO - Journal of Political Ecology
JF - Journal of Political Ecology
IS - 1
ER -