Empowering the Earth

By Alex Begg. "We are clearly dealing with power all the time, and there is a real need for this kind of theoretical work. I hope that it will be widely read."
- George Monbiot, Guardian columnist

"I believe Alex has focussed on an essential issue for the Green movement and social commentators - the issue of power. For too long, radical environmentalists have avoided the difficult problem of where the power for social transformation comes from and how it can be utitlized."
- Derek Wall, author of Green History

"This book will be a valuable contribution to the debate surrounding green politics and theory. This is an original theme around which to organise the material; the issues are handled interestingly and the writing is lucid."
- Andrew Dobson, Keele University and author of Green Political Thought

Political theory is constantly at risk of becoming a self-indulgent pursuit cut off from the realities of political action, but Alex Begg's work emerges directly out of the Green movement's experience in the UK of challenging, using, generating and overcoming power. In Empowering the Earth he shows how power is the fibre of society, binding us together and building our institutions. His organic theory of power treating it as a dynamic, living process, rather than a passive tool will facilitate strategic thinking among those working for social change.

Political action which is not based on an understanding of power is at best uncoordinated and unfocused, and at worst leads to a recreation of the power structures that it sets out to undermine. Studying power enables us not only to see how to evade the restrictions on us, but also how to empower a movement for change. Empowering the Earth shows how we can distinguish between patterns of power which threaten our future and those which enable us to live sustainably and harmoniously. It outlines strategies that work in a diverse and interconnected way to build the 'dynamic of empowerment' into a viable social alternative.