Socioecological Transformations by Ramcilovic-Suominen, Sabaheta;

Short description:

Socioecological Transformations aims to reclaim socioecological transformation as a radical, justice-centred concept and praxis, tackling the deeper roots of current socioecological violence and oppression to the materialist-dualist worldview that established and maintained colonial-racist-capitalist structures of oppression.

Long description:

Socioecological Transformations confronts dominant framings of transformation that either remain apolitical and ahistorical, or overemphasizes the structural causes, while bypassing the ontological roots of the present-day socioecological violence and destruction. It challenges the technocratic and structuralist tendencies that either reduce transformation to policy tweaks, or to social movements and activism.

This volume reclaims socioecological transformations as a radical, justice-centred theory-praxis. By connecting the structural and the ontological roots of the colonial-racial-capitalist system of oppression, the book exposes how materialist-dualist ontology and associated worldviews uphold hierarchies of worth, which in turn serve and uphold the colonial-racial-capitalist system of oppression. In doing so, it widens the spectrum of viable responses to include in addition to social movements and activism, those that unsettle the ontological bases of our socioecological calamities—the human exceptionalism and the illusion of separation. The fifteen chapters span diverse geographies, struggles, and approaches, weaving together onto-epistemic inquiry with grounded transformative practices, movements and action. The contributions share the common focus on justice as both motivation and a guiding principle for transformations. The book calls for transformation where being, knowing, and doing are reimagined in relational, life-affirming terms.

A vital resource for students, academics, activists inspired by political ecology, feminist studies, decolonial and relational approaches, social movements, and transformations, but also practitioners and policy actors seeking to engage transformation beyond surface-level solutions. Socioecological Transformations invites readers to embrace complexity, plurality, along the paradoxes that transformations entail, while building solidarities across polarized strategies, ontologies and worldviews.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

“Socioecological Transformations opens up the urgently needed conversation on the ontological underpinnings of the colonial-racial-capitalist system that drives both human and ecological destruction. Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen's edited volume makes a powerful case for rethinking transformation by engaging with relational and non-dualist worldviews, offering pathways that extend beyond conventional activism and social movements. This book challenges us to embrace deeper ontological shifts—toward interconnectedness, contemplation, and radical care—as essential dimensions for a just, ecological future. A groundbreaking contribution that pushes the boundaries of socioecological theory and praxis.”

Mario Blaser, Professor of Anthropology, Archaeology, and Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland

In a world fractured by false separations, this book is a bridge – woven from the wisdom of many worlds, carrying the weight of histories untold and futures yet to be dreamed. Socioecological Transformations invites us to see anew, to embrace the pluriverse in all its radical interconnectedness. Here, change is not a technocratic fix but a deep reckoning with the stories we tell, the relations we nurture, the ontologies we embody. To read this book is to step into a space where justice is not an abstraction, but a practice of truly seeing, and being, with all that is.

Steffen Boehm, Professor in Organisation & Sustainability, Director of Research, Sustainable Futures, Department of Management, University of Exeter Business School

Examining the causes of socioecological destruction is key to understanding the destructive dynamics of capitalism and colonialism – and to formulating alternatives. This inspiring book is a must-read because it advances debates on the hot topics of our time and offers hope that authoritarian responses to multiple crises can be counteracted.

Ulrich Brand, University of Vienna, co-author of The Imperial Mode of Living. Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism

“Transformative changes are necessary for just futures and this book is a brilliant set of insights and radical actions on exactly that. Through deep engagement with varied types of socioecological transformations, personal and structural pathways to pursue them, and the creative ways to achieve radical justice, the book offers pathways forward for all of us to consider.”

Farhana Sultana, Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University and editor of Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice

This bold and timely book conveys the depth and quality of transformations needed to achieve a world where all life thrives. Weaving together diverse perspectives, examples, and approaches to nonduality, relationality, and unity, it reveals a profound insight:  the most realistic approach to just transformations is to shift the way we think about reality.

Professor Karen O’Brien, University of Oslo, author of You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World

“Defying the politics of extractivism, extinction and exterminism, this book introduces voices of hope from Finland, to India, the Amazon, and beyond. These scholarly essays, grounded in a unity of theory and praxis, open up new pathways for just and sustainable global change.” 

Ariel Salleh, author of DeColonize EcoModernism!; Visiting Professor, Federal University of Brazil at Bahia

Table of Contents:

1 Just global socioecological transformations: it takes a worldview change to change the world? 2 On the illusion of separate self (as root cause of socioecological crises) and radical intraconnectedness (as precondition for healing and transforming)

3 Potentiality and responsibility: tenets of a deep relational ontology and implications for transformations research and practice

4 When farm worlds change: ontological transformations in the web of life

5 Indigenous spiritualities: transforming the future through ancestral knowledge

6 Centring feminist ethic of care in socio-ecological transformative movements

7 Resistance-existence within and against education in colonized lands

8 In search of alternatives to development: learning from grounded initiatives

9 Transformative bottom-up urban planning: a case from a fishing community in coastal Mumbai, India

10 Exploring small-scale farming as ecological livelihoods: agricultural sustainability transformation in the minority worlds

11 Looking around for liveable forest futures

12 The meanings of tourism degrowth in the context of Barcelona

13 EU green transition as a barrier for socioecological transformations: deradicalizing transformations, degrowth, decoloniality, and justice in the EU’s green politics

14 Barriers to transformations in the EU’s external forest governance: indigenous rights in the EU-Honduras Voluntary Partnership Agreement 15 Broadening the scope for just socioecological transformations: ideas, structures, and alliances