How can we unlock society’s potential to shift the course of the climate crisis? So many of us feel helpless in the face of corporate-fueled environmental destruction.

However, Practicing Social Ecology shows that there is an amazing well of untapped power in our communities—we just need to know how to use it. Drawing from her experience of working in democratic ecology movements from the revolution in Rojava to Barcelona’s municipalist movement, Finley shows how to develop assemblies, confederations, study groups, and permaculture projects. Looking to history, she maps out how social ecologists, such as Murray Bookchin, have led inspirational struggles around climate and energy, agriculture and biotechnology, globalization, and economic inequality. This guide is perfect for anyone curious about how to challenge unending capitalist growth through the democratic power of social ecology.

Eleanor Finley is a researcher at the University of Massachusetts and was an associate editor at ROAR magazine.