Capitalism has created a world of bullshit abundance, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we indeed do. This hollow pursuit, achieved at the expense of both people and the planet, has forced us to confront ecological limits we can no longer ignore. Transitioning beyond our ecocidal capitalist system has emerged as the defining challenge of our time.
Radical Abundance presents a roadmap for transitioning beyond capitalism. It offers a bold vision grounded in Marxist thought and real-world socialist experiments. This book blends theory with hands-on experience to provide a concrete path forward for creating a just and sustainable future.
The co-authors propose Public-Common Partnerships (PCPs) as a model for communities to partner with public bodies, gaining control over the resources that affect their lives. This approach fosters self-expanding, radical democratic governance, shifting focus from individual assets to building a broader democratic economy—a "Community Wealth Building gone viral." A world of radical abundance is still possible, but only through democratic economic planning and worker control."
A blueprint for escaping capitalism and creating a world of true abundance
Arvustused
'Degrowth or ecomodernism? This book offers a compelling alternative. More than a utopian ideal, radical abundance is the guiding principle of a socialist revolution already in action' -- Kohei Saito, author of Slow Down: How Degrowth Communism Can Save the Earth 'The crises we facemass deprivation and ecological breakdowncannot be resolved within capitalism. We need a pathway out. Radical Abundance delivers exactly that. If you're looking for practical steps to a post-capitalist future, don't miss this book' -- Jason Hickel, author of Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World 'Radical Abundance resets the terms of left debate. With its concrete, compelling, and creative embrace of class struggle as a politics of transition, it is indispensable to anyone committed to building popular power on a rapidly heating planet' -- Jodi Dean, author of Capital's Grave: Neofeudalism and the New Class Struggle 'A rigorously argued and radically hopeful book, which exposes the gross inefficiency of modern capitalism and shows precisely how we can begin to build societies that guarantee a good life for all' -- Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism: How to Survive in an Age of Corporate Greed
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: From Bullshit Abundance to Radical Abundance
Part I
2. The Necessity of Transition
3. Instituting Popular Protagonism
4. Denial and Derisking
Part II
5. Public-Common Partnerships
6. Urban Development
7. Pharmaceuticals
8. Food Systems
9. Conclusion: Futures
Notes
Bibliography
Kai Heron is a political organiser, trade unionist, and Lecturer in Political Ecology at Lancaster Universitys Environment Centre. He is the co-editor of the De Gruyter Degrowth Handbook (2024) and has published widely on the politics of green transitions, political theory, and political economy in academic journals and in popular outlets including The New Statesman, Sidecar, Jacobin Magazine, the Verso blog, e-flux, Rupture Magazine, and Spectre Journal.
Keir Milburn is a writer, researcher, and activist. He has a background as an academic in political economy and organisational theory. His book Generation Left rovoked debate across several countries on generational political divides driven, in part, by generational imbalances in asset ownership. The book was reviewed in venues such as the London Review of Books and the New Left Review. He is an internationally recognised expert on economic democracy, the commons and Public-Common Partnerships, and is co-director of the think tank Abundance.
Bertie Russell is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is an activist-researcher with a doctorate in critical geography from the University of Leeds. He specialises in urban commons, economic democracy, co-production and radical municipalism. He is co-editor of the forthcoming book Radical Municipalism: The Politics of the Common and the Democratization of Public Services.
