Pluriversality and beyond: consolidating radical alternatives to (mal-)development as a Commonist project

• Published in: Sustainability science Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 1183 - 1194
• Main Authors: Gills, Barry K., Hosseini, S. A. Hamed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.07.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Civilization; Climate change; Climate Change Management and Policy; Convergence; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Management; Landscape Ecology; Modernity; Political factors; Politics; Public Health; Science; Social sciences; Sovereignty; Special Feature: Alternatives to Sustainable Development: What can we Learn from the Pluriverse in Practice?; Special Feature: Original Article; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Platform activism; Maldevelopment; Commonism; Transversality; Praxis-based methodologies; Pluriversality; People’s Sovereignty Network
• ISSN: 1862-4065; 1862-4057
• DOI: 10.1007/s11625-022-01129-8

This article addresses contradictions in the 'pluriverse' of radical alternatives to maldevelopment, and proposes an integrative framework for fostering productive convergences among its forces. It argues that the 2020s and 2030s will be pivotal decades, in which the current global conjuncture, characterized by intensifying economic turmoil, climate change, and ecological crises, will translate into increased mass discontent, global polarization, political instabilities, and social unrest across the world. However, there is no reason to believe that this intensification of crises will automatically result in the end of unproductive divisions among the global left. Thus, we argue that a higher level of proactivism, at a meta-ideological standing, which we refer to here as the ‘Commonist Project’, is both necessary and possible. The article proposes a fourfold framework of how to promote sustainable convergences and solidarities, going beyond temporary pragmatic coalitions and alliances. This proposal draws on the idea of ‘commoning transformative knowledge’, realized through creating new transversal integrative assemblages of alternative-futures-making initiatives. In the end, the argument is empirically supported by drawing on the authors’ critical reflections on their own cross-organizational experiences of fostering dialogic and praxis-based methodologies across various groups and forces pursuing post-capitalist alternatives through the People’s Sovereignty Network.