ALTERNATIVES AND FUTURES: Palgrave Macmillan book series

As the series editor of the Palgrave Macmillan (SpringerLink) Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias book series, I welcome book proposals. The series aims to:

  • contribute to the development of analytical meta-frameworks for studying and understanding alternative movements and visions
  • be an engaging forum of diverse voices, including activists’ testimonies and observers’ critiques.

Please contact me with pitches or proposals. Feel free to download and distribute this flyer specifically on short (25,000 to 50,000 words) swiftly published Palgrave Pivots.

Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias

Two publications launched the series in 2021: Young People and the Far Right by Pam Nilan (June 2021) and Housing Movements in Rome: Resistance and Class by Carlotta Caciagli (December 2021).

Post-Capitalist Futures: Paradigms, Politics and Prospects edited by Samuel Alexander, Sangeetha Chandra-Shekeran and Brendan Gleeson came out in March 2022. Food Resistance Movements: Journeying through Alternative Food Networks by Ferne Edwards was issued late 2022 and Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice by Marisa Holmes was released mid-July 2023, on which see the review ‘A human geography of the space of the square’ at Progress in Political Economy here. Also see Lessons from Occupy Wall Street at The Commons Social Change Library informed by Marisa’s Australian book tour.

This exciting and timely new book series explores 21st century movements challenging the economic and political order of global capitalism through new cultures, new practices and campaigning for alternative futures.

Movements such as degrowth, Occupy, extinction rebellion, mutual aid, low impact living and Via Campesina, variously address key current issues such as inequities, environmental crises and unsustainable production. This series demonstrates the breadth, depth, significance and potential of ‘alternatives’ in the construction of this 21st century. Key foci include the future each movement advocates, their organising practices and strategic agendas.

The series offers a forum for constructive critique and analytical reflection of movements’ directions, activism and activists, their assumptions, drivers, aims, visions of alternative futures and actual performance and influence. Books in the series span a range of theories and strategies through focused analyses, comparisons, contrasts and critiques, with inquiries taking disciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary frameworks — highlighting exemplary established and original approaches as well as emerging and more experimental methods and theories to apply in this emerging field.

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The Alternatives and Futures series is of interest to scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities — especially those working in environmental sustainability, politics and policy making, environmental justice, grassroots governance, heterodox economics and activism — and offers lecturers, undergraduates and postgraduates readings and reviews that will keep pace with burgeoning new democracy, grassroots governance and environmentally-oriented movements arguing and acting for deep socio-political and economic change.

The series includes explorations of theory and case studies, with a specific interest in works of praxis, theory grounded or challenged by reflection and analysis of contemporary practice.

Editorial board

  • David Barkin — Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Coyoacan, Mexico
  • Salvatore Engel-Dimauro — State University of New York, New Platz, New York, United States
  • Max Haiven — Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada
  • Terence Leahy — University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
  • Ariel Salleh — University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
  • Leah Temper — McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Marina Sitrin — Binghamton University, State University of New York, New York, United States.

To contribute

We call for proposals in a range of formats from monographs to edited collections and particularly encourage the short, accessibly written 25-50,000 word Palgrave Pivot format.

Contact series editor Anitra Nelson and/or publishing editor Marion Duval, with your pitch or proposal for the Palgrave Macmillan (SpringerLink) Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias book series.