Politics, Strategy and Agency in the Post-Covid Era

Given the conditions created by climate crisis, and by COVID-19, our metabolic relationship with nature is breaking down. Neoliberal economic postulates are even questioning by ruling class itself. The deregulated national states lose their ability to govern, as the ideological hegemony of bourgeoisie is on the decline. Apart from all of that, the crisis of social reproduction is spread widely. All those circumstances provide a great opportunity for the left, but they also spawn great political danger.

Even though we can talk about the crisis of neoliberalism, after the long period of defeat of working class and especially after the retreat of Occupy Movement, resistance became the word we usually dare to identify our position. Yet, history repeatedly proved that the salvation of working class and of the Earth can only be possible by our own activity. And alongside the discrediting neoliberal values globally which has fuelled the mistrust toward market mechanisms, several social and solidarity economy initiatives have already begun to flourish in various areas, in different forms, at different scales and with different emphases on volunteering, reciprocity, inclusion, democracy, justice, and ecological sustainability. Given the large repertoire of these variegated social and solidarity economy initiatives, it is now more important than ever to contribute to the economic, social and ecological resilience in a post-Covid world which appeals to rethinking the efficiency of both government intervention and market mechanisms in solving even basic socio-economic problems, such as loss of income and jobs, closure of businesses, food security among others.

So, we call our friends to co-investigate the strategy that can give an edge to our activities to surmount the capitalistic societies which are experiencing the crisis of being undone. We demand your contribution to shape our strategy against the capitalistic class that has equipped new ways of subordination/exploitation and the ability to create new kind of subjectivities. We invite scholars and activists to discuss how people have fostered relations of solidarity under the prevailing ecological and socio-economic conditions of the neoliberal system, which have worsened during the Covid pandemic and to get a better understanding of how and to what extent diverse economic activities and forms of economic organization play a role in building resilience in rural and urban communities in a post pandemic world. To this end, we aim to discuss the potential of this kind of diverse grassroots initiatives for the creation of new horizons in-against and beyond capitalist social relations and their disguised or uncovered dynamics linked with the class struggle.

We welcome presentations and panel proposals that contribute to the discussions such as:

• Mediums to combine different social movements
• Reevaluation of the strategies of the past
• Contemporary utopian studies
• Re-acquiring our collective capacities to create a new world: Solidarity economies, cooperations etc.
• Politics of economic and social geographies, and performativity of economics and alternative economic spaces
• social, spatial and political theorization of political agency
• Thinking the questions of organizing, acting and theorizing questions together
• The potential of radicalizing the commons, communing processes and councils.