Alternatives to Capitalism in the 21st Century

Series editors: Lara Monticelli, Copenhagen Business School, and Torsten Geelan, University of Copenhagen

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing global economic recession of unprecedented depth is a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to challenge capitalism and transition to a more equitable, democratic, solidaristic and sustainable socio-economic system. Indeed, the present situation has revitalized public and academic debates about the future of capitalism and has demonstrated the urgent need to envision and enact alternatives that can help rebalance the economy and tackle the multiple intertwined crises that societies are currently facing: high and rising inequality of income and power, eroding democracy and citizen’s rights, human-induced climate change and environmental destruction.

This ground-breaking new series will advance the international, comparative and interdisciplinary study of capitalism and its alternatives in the 21st Century. Having grown out of the ‘Alternatives to Capitalism’ research network – part of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) – the series aims to publish cutting-edge work from a wide range of scholarly communities in the Global North and the Global South.

Books in the series will explore alternative forms of production, consumption and social reproduction in contemporary societies, and will contribute to debates on the future of capitalism, the commons, prefigurative politics, social movements and collective action, real utopias, radical politics, and heterodox economic thinking.

Download the series flyer.

Proposals are encouraged from a variety of disciplines that offer original theoretical and empirical research on topics such as:

• Contemporary capitalism, its crises and alternatives
• Social change, transitions to post-capitalist societies and low-carbon economies
• Resilience and resistance to capitalist expropriation and exploitation
• Radical/deep ecology, eco-feminism, eco-socialism and degrowth
• Political and ethical consumerism
• Ecovillages, communes and intentional communities, radical lifestyles
• Decolonial and feminist economic and social practices
• Worker/producer/consumer cooperatives, economic democracy, and labour struggles
• Direct democracy, radical municipalism and the commons
• Democratic socialism and socialism in the 21st century
• Alternatives to shareholder capitalism
• Alternative metrics and values in capitalist societies (e.g., ESG impact, new taxonomies and benchmarks)
• Critiques of “green capitalism” and “conscious capitalism”
• Alternative and complementary currencies
• Alternatives in/to the creative industries
• Transformative social innovation, social and solidarity economy
• Alternative and place-based food and energy networks
• Anti-capitalist trade unions, political parties, and social movements
• Critical pedagogy for a just ecological transition
• Innovative methods and epistemologies for interpreting alternatives to capitalism

Prospective authors are invited to submit proposals for single and co-authored monographs as well as edited collections between 60,000 and 100,000 words in length.

If you would like to discuss submitting a proposal, please email the series editors: Lara Monticelli – lmo.mpp@cbs.dk and Torsten Geelan – tg@soc.ku.dk.

International Advisory Board

Wendy Harcourt, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Vasna Ramasar, Lund University, Sweden
Tom Malleson, King’s University College, Canada
Silvia Federici, Hofstra University, US
Richard D. Wolff, The New School for Social Research, US
Nancy Fraser, The New School for Social Research, US
Luke Martell, University of Sussex, UK
Laura Basu, openDemocracy and University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Juliet Schor, Boston College, US
Isabelle Ferreras, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Göran Therborn, University of Cambridge, UK
Gar Alperovitz, The Democracy Collective and the Next System Project, US
Francesca Forno, University of Trento, Italy
Flor Avelino, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Netherlands
Emanuele Leonardi, University of Parma, Italy
David Bailey, University of Birmingham, UK
Ashish Kothari, Global Tapestry of Alternatives, India
Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, University College London, UK
Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina, US
Albena Azmanova, Brussels School of International Studies, Belgium