System Change Made Simple

Ecofeminism links gender politics to environmentalism. Ideas about gender are often relevant to the way people interpret environmental politics. This podcast explains what this means at the grass roots. How views of gender can link up to a conflict over environmental issues. How people can relate their environmental politics to gender identities.

Summary of the analysis of patriarchy in the podcast series so far. The invention of social class. Patriarchy creates a set of psychological foundations for class society. Contempt for non-human nature can fit into these psychological patterns. Among other factors, this works to drive class societies to collapse. How these links become apparent in classic works of civilisation and in popular cultu...

In patriarchal societies, there's a particular pattern to how men are brought up as boys. From boys to men. It creates a psychology of competitive striving to beat other men. It works against empathetic relationships with women. It fosters anxiety in men about their claim to be regarded as a real man. So competitive striving is part of toxic masculinity but it's not just that. It also in...

Can the term ‘patriarchy’ be applied to other times and places? The Munduruçu, a horticultural society of the Amazon basin. How widespread is patriarchy? What are its basic causes? How patriarchy is also socially constructed. Why feminism is such a successful movement today.

Patriarchy is pretty-well universal in human societies so far. It is a regime of power and exploitation. We can describe this inequality using a theory of human nature. To explain this, I will begin with a well-known sociological study of ‘housewives’ of London in the seventies. I will go on to look at other aspects of patriarchy in current society. 

Anarchism is defined in relation to ‘the state’. Anarchists oppose the state. I examine ideas about the state coming from Marx and Weber, founders of sociology. The state as it appears in class societies throughout history. Why the state is a slightly different kettle of fish in late capitalism. Is there any reason to expect reforms enacted by the state to solve current problems? If we had a revol...

The region of Mexico controlled by the Zapatistas is a ‘temporary autonomous zone’. The podcast explains how the Zapatistas implement community control of economics and politics. The most thorough attempt to set up a gift economy in recent history. Also, a hybrid of the gift economy and capitalism — with some of the problems that go with that. The ‘state’ cannot exist in a gift economy. Yet the Za...

Prefiguring a post-capitalist system through ‘hybrids of the gift economy and capitalism’. Hybrids embody some aspects of the gift economy that ‘prefigure’ a post capitalist system. For example, some control of production by workers or the community. Or some distribution to benefit particular people or the natural environment. This is combined with aspects of a current market-dominated economy. Fo...

This podcast continues the discussion of hybrids of the gift economy and capitalism. Three examples are Margaretta’s Belly Dancing school in an Australian town, the Chikukwa project in rural Zimbabwe and IDEP, an Indonesian permaculture organisation. In each case the discussion explains the market and gift economy aspects of the organisation. The tensions that arise when you are trying to operate...

How would we actually get from where we are now to a gift economy? There is a range of possible strategies and options. A popular revolution supported by the armed forces. An act of parliament following a landslide election victory. A multiplicity of grassroots initiatives gradually link together and begin to operate without money as the capitalist economy crumbles. 

The state takes ownership of most of the means of production on behalf of the people. A democratic government plans the economy to avoid environmental damage and ensure social justice. What economic and political problems seem likely with this model? Problems with a market monetary economy would still plague this proposal in practice.

The most popular alternative for system-change in the environmentalist movement. Intensive government regulation and intervention winds back economic growth to zero. In the rich countries, degrowth is also necessary. Much of the economy remains in private hands and the market operates within government guidelines. Yet key proposals of this pathway are likely to undermine and even destroy a market...

Most people think of money as a useful tool – to facilitate exchange, a necessity if we are to make a complex economy work. This podcast challenges these ideas. Money and the market go hand in hand. The market gives money priority. Social justice and environmental sanity take second place. The market and money depend on alienated labour. To change to a system that works for people and the planet w...

One of three key proposals for system change. The gift economy functions without money. Instead, collectives make agreements to supply goods and services to particular people and groups. Some working groups supply their own communities. Others are units in a production chain, linking up to assemble and distribute what they produce. How could a system like this ensure fair distribution, good enviro...

How does capitalism work? Capitalism is a social invention. The capitalist social machine divides the population into classes. The ruling class maintains its power  by exploiting people's work.  This episode considers three basic phases of the capitalist machine, from the seventeenth century up to the present day. Why is the capitalist social machine coming unstuck now and what are the prospe...