10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another profound book from the pioneer of social ecology and libertarian municipalism!!!, July 2, 2007
This review is from: Social Ecology and Communalism (Paperback)
For many decades, the late Murray Bookchin articulated a left libertarian vision of a rational ecological society and how we could achieve it. Arguing that ecological problems are rooted in social problems such as capitalism and the nation-state, Murray Bookchin's theory of social ecology is a radical departure from the misanthropy of deep ecology and the economic determinism of Marxism and classical anarchism. While Bookchin certainly has much to say about class exploitation, he manages nonetheless to transcend the workerist emphasis of much libertarian socialist theory by insisting that hierarchy in general, rather than just class, is the source of human misery and environmental destruction. Not only is this new anthology of essays an accessible introduction to social ecology, it is also a moving tribute to an important social thinker who revolutionized both ecology and political philosophy. Though late in life he chose communalism over anarchism per se, there's no denying the enormous impact his prolific writings have had on the anarchist movement. While all the essays in this book are thought-provoking and challenging, I most enjoyed the final essay, "The Communalist Project", which incidentally was the final essay he ever wrote. In this essay, Bookchin reflects upon the recent anti-corporate globalization protests and imparts his wisdom to the next generation of activists. Thank you Murray Bookchin for your life-long committment to social justice and the environment, and thank you AK Press for providing the world with such important literature!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best introduction to social ecology and communalism, January 19, 2010
This review is from: Social Ecology and Communalism (Paperback)
As a dialectical thinker, Murray Bookchin (like such a distinguished social theorist as Karl Marx before him) developed his thoughts and ideas in accordance with the realities of his time. This book can be said to stand as Bookchin's final philosophical and political statement of views only in recognition of his death in 2006. Taken as a whole, Social Ecology and Communalism is an excellent introduction to both of the invariably woven topics. The brevity of the articles, along with Bookchin's concise yet rich writing style, make this a wonderful book for a study group/book club. Bookchin, here, continues to emphasize the persistent lessons serious radicals must learn from the past failing of socialist thought and action. In addition to the two previously published and now revised articles 'What is Social Ecology?' and 'The Communalist Project', two new articles appear with fresh insights and thoughts on radical politics heading into the 21st century. An excellent read.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Essays in Communalism, January 21, 2008
This review is from: Social Ecology and Communalism (Paperback)
This collection, the last to be written during Murray Bookchin's life, is a basic introduction and overview to Bookchin's views and comments on anarchism, Marxism, ecology, and his own ideology of Communalism. It consists of four short essays: one on social ecology and its meaning, one which establishes Bookchin's idea of the separation of the concepts of the state and the public sphere, one on the state of the radical left in recent decades (this seems obligatory for any left-wing collection), and one on Communalism proper.
This booklet is, in my view, a mixed bag. On the one hand, Bookchin points out many interesting ideas, and makes many useful criticisms: he has correctly nothing but scorn for the spiritualism and 'lifestyle' approach of much of the modern environmentalist movements, he emphasizes the uselessness of trying to evade capitalist co-optation through withdrawals or communal living, radical lifestyles, etc., he argues against a one-sided approach to technology as some unmitigated evil, or against humans as if they were a parasitical species. As he says: "Capitalism has nothing to fear from an ecological, feminist, anarchist or socialist hash of hazy ideas (...) that leaves its social premises untouched."
On the other hand, a lot of Bookchin's ideas are themselves a hash of hazy ideas. His proposal of Communalism is based on idealistic and naive conceptions of citizenship and public virtue; he conceives of cities as possible 'poleis' in the Greek city-state style, where independent citizens come together to discuss and decide through direct democracy the issues of the day. This is a Kantian-Arendtian idea of the public sphere, which betrays not only an exaggeratedly positive and naive view of how the Athenian democracy actually worked (Bookchin admits its limitations in terms of voting rights and slavery, but does not see that the institutions themselves were hardly very democratic or effective either), but also indicates a hopeless idealism as regards current society. Bookchin argues: "In a Communalist way of life, conventional economics, with its focus on prices and scarce resources, would be replaced by ethics, with its concern for human needs and the good life. Human solidarity (...) would replace material gain and egotism." But not a word is said on how this is supposed to be achieved, except apparently by rejecting all existing left-wing movements and by "transcending its categories". We are left then to conclude that we should proceed through the method of moral appeals, a complete fallback to the level of utopian socialism; quite correctly refuted by Marx and Engels back in the day. (Speaking of which, Bookchin's criticisms of Marxism are equally weak.)
That is not to say that there is nothing useful in Bookchin's own choices of emphasis and new ideas, though. Bookchin may well have an interesting research idea when he points out that cities are more than just the locus of trade and bourgeois society, but that they also form a particular kind of community with a public sphere that is not found elsewhere, and where radicalism has its own history. His focus on the civil society and citizenship remind one of Hegel, and are in a sense more a foreshadowing of Marxism than a refutation. He also has a point when he says that the call for rule of law and constitutionalism, common in many historical radical movements, has been swept under the carpet by Marxists and anarchists alike, and deserves more examination.
As a critic Bookchin rhetorically strong and interesting. As a proponent of an alternative vision, not so much.
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