S03E48 - Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell on Radical Abundance

Future Histories

Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell discuss Radical Abundance, transition and public-commons partnerships.
Shownotes

Heron, K., Milburn, K., Russell, B. (2025). Radical Abundance. How to Win a Green Democratic Future. Pluto Press.

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/radical-abundance/

Kai Heron at Lancaster University:

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/about-us/people/kai-heron

Keir Milburn’s contributions at Novara Media:

https://novaramedia.com/contributor/keir-milburn/

Bertie Russell at the Autonomous University of Barcelona:

https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/en/persons/bertie-thomas-russell

Abundance (the collective):

https://www.in-abundance.org/

on Marta Harnecker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marta_Harnecker

on Michael A. Lebowitz:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_A._Lebowitz

Lebowitz, M. A. (2013). Contested Reproduction and the Contradictions of Socialism. Socialist Project.

https://socialistproject.ca/2013/09/b877/

on Yevgeni Preobrazhensky:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeni_Preobrazhensky

Preobrazhensky, Y. (1965). The New Economics. Oxford University Press.

https://files.libcom.org/files/%5bPreobrazhensky%2C_Evgeny_Alekseevich%5d_The_New_Econo(BookZZ.org).pdf

Nunes, R. (2021). Neither Vertical nor Horizontal. A Theory of Political Organization. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/772-neither-vertical-nor-horizontal

on Public-Commons Partnerships:

https://www.in-abundance.org/what-is-a-public-commons-parntership

https://www.in-abundance.org/reports/public-common-partnerships-building-new-circuits-of-collective-ownership

for case studies on Public-Commons Partnerships, see:

https://www.in-abundance.org/case-studies

on Public-Private Partnerships:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public%E2%80%93private_partnership

on council farms in the UK:

https://www.cpre.org.uk/explainer/county-farms-explainer/

Common Wealth (the organization):

https://www.common-wealth.org/

Common Wealth’s recent project on privatization and Public-Private Partnerships in the UK:

https://www.common-wealth.org/interactive/who-owns-britain/home

on Che Guevara:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

on Stuart Hall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hall_(cultural_theorist)

on Hugo Chávez:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez

Gilbert, C. (2023). Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and its Socialist Project. Monthly Review Press.

https://monthlyreview.org/9781685900243/

on agroecology:

https://agroecology-coalition.org/what-is-agroecology/

SCOP-TI:

https://www.scop-ti.info/

the Berlin Housing Campaign:

https://dwenteignen.de/en

on the Wards Corner Market:

https://www.in-abundance.org/case-studies/wards-corner

Amarnath, S. et al. (2023): Varieties of Derisking. Phenomenal World.

https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/derisking/

on the Great Replacement conspiracy theory in the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement_conspiracy_theory_in_the_United_States

on marronage communities and their role in slave rebellions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroons

on the coal strikes in Appalachia in the late 19th and early 20th century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars

on the Black Panther Party:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party

on SYRIZA and their development:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/rethinking-populism/the-systemic-metamorphosis-of-greeces-once-radical-left-wing-syriza-party/

on Erik Olin Wright’s “Transition Troughs” concept, see chapter 9 and 10 of:

Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning Real Utopias. Verso.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/2143-envisioning-real-utopias

the “Abundance” report on the social property of water in the UK:

https://www.in-abundance.org/latest/beyond-bailouts

on the 2023 strike in France where workers cut energy to certain sectors:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/03/30/robin-hood-electricians-and-oil-blockades-the-radical-tactics-of-frances-striking-energy-w

van Dyk, S. & Haubner, T. (2021). Community-Kapitalismus. Hamburger Edition.

https://www.hamburger-edition.de/buecher-e-books/artikel-detail/community-kapitalismus/

van Dyk, S. (2018). Post-Wage Politics and the Rise of Community Capitalism. Work, Employment and Society, 32(3), 528-545.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017018755663

on municipalism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipalism

Bianchi, I. & Russell, B. (eds.) (2026). Radical Municipalism. The Politics of the Common and the Democratization of Public Services. Bristol University Press. (forthcoming)

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/radical-municipalism

on the Occupy Movement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement

on Climateflation:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/26/tuesday-briefing-how-climateflation-is-pushing-food-prices-ever-higher-and-changing-how-we-eat

on hernani burujabe (the tripartite economic planning system in the city of Hernani):

https://hernaniburujabe.eus/es/que-es/

Egia-Olaizola, A., Villalba-Eguiluz, U. and Gainza, X. (2025), Beyond the New Municipalism. Towards Post-Capitalist Territorial Sovereignty in the Case of Hernani Burujabe. Antipode, 57: 1448-1469.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.70030

on the Commons (concept):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons

on Evergreening:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreening

Klein, E. & Thompson, D. (2025). Abundance. Avid Reader Press.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Abundance/Ezra-Klein/9781668023488

on Marx’s concept of the realm of necessity and freedom:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/hist-mat/capital/vol3-ch48.htm

on David Graeber:

https://davidgraeber.org/

Suits, B. (2005). The Grasshopper. Games, Life and Utopia. Broadview Press.

https://kevinjpatton.com/teaching/phil_3230/readings/Bernard%20Suits%20-%20The%20Grasshopper.pdf

on the socialist ecomodernism and degrowth debate:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-01-23/ecomodernism-on-its-own-terms/

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https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e44-anna-kornbluh-on-climate-counteraesthetics/

S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e30-matt-huber-kohei-saito-on-growth-progress-and-left-imaginaries/

S03E29 | Nancy Fraser on Alternatives to Capitalism

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e29-nancy-fraser-on-alternatives-to-capitalism/

S03E19 | Wendy Brown on Socialist Governmentality

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e19-wendy-brown-on-socialist-governmentality/

S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e03-planning-for-entropy-on-sociometabolic-planning/

S02E51 | Silvia Federici on Progress, Reproduction and Commoning

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e51-silvia-federici-on-progress-reproduction-and-commoning/

S02E13 | Tine Haubner und Silke van Dyk zu Community-Kapitalismus

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e13-tine-haubner-und-silke-van-dyk-zu-community-kapitalismus/

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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

https://www.democratic-planning.com/

Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.

https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1

Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

https://www.indep.network/

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

https://www.planningresearch.net/

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Episode Keywords

#KaiHeron, #KeirMilburn, #BertieRussell, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #Transition, #SocioecologicalTransition #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #Capitalism #BerlinHousingCampaign, #DWE, #Economics, #Socialism, #Socialisation, #Commons, #PublicCommonsPartnerships, #RadicalAbundance, #Abundance, #Municipalism, #Agroecology, #Derisking, #Investment, #Degrowth, #SocialistEcomodernism, #Ecomodernism