Future Histories

Yousaf Nishat-Botero on the Ecologies of Planning and Metabolic Municipalism.


Shownotes Yousaf Nishat-Botero


Dr. Yousaf Nishat-Botero at the University of Birmingham: 


https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/persons/yousaf-nishat-botero/


Nishat-Botero, Y. (2023). Planning’s ecologies: Democratic planning in the age of planetary crises. Organization. Special Issue: Public Value, 1-23.


https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505084231186749


Nishat-Botero, Y. & Thompson, M. (2025). Planning in Nature’s Metropolis: Metabolic Municipalism and Ecological Planning in Barcelona. Environment and Planning D.


https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02637758251364061


Nishat-Botero, Y. & Thompson, M. The land question and postcapitalist countrysides: towards a town-country synthesis. In Postcapitalist Countrysides (N. Gallent, M.Gkartzios, M. Scott, A. Purves (Eds.). UCL Press.


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379514594_The_land_question_and_postcapitalist_countrysides_towards_a_town-country_synthesis


on ‘metabolism’ in Liebig and Marx:


Clark, B. & Foster, J. B. (2018). The Robbery of Nature: Capitalism and the Metabolic Rift. Monthly Review 70(3).


https://monthlyreview.org/articles/the-robbery-of-nature/


Marx, K. ([1867] 2004). Capital: Volume I. Penguin U


https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/35192/capital-by-karl-marx-intro-ernest-mandel-trans-ben-fowkes/9780140445688


Sorg, C. (2023). Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail: Toward an Expanded Notion of Democratically Planned Postcapitalism. Critical Sociology 49(3), 475-493.


https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08969205221081058


Salleh, A. (2010). From Metabolic Rift to “Metabolic Value”: Reflections on Environmental Sociology and the Alternative Globalization Movement. Organization & Environment 23(2), 205-219.


https://www.jstor.org/stable/27068655


on ‘capitalism as socioecological totality’:


Fraser, N. (2022). Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet – and what we can do about it. Verso.


https://www.versobooks.com/products/2685-cannibal-capitalism


Moore, J. (2015). Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso.


https://www.versobooks.com/products/74-capitalism-in-the-web-of-life


Planning for Entropy. (2022). Democratic Economic Planning, Social Metabolism and the Environment. Science and Society Journal. Vol 82, Nr 2. New York: Guilford Publications


https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.2022.86.2.291


Latour, B. & Weibel, P. (2020). Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth. MIT Press.


https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262044455/critical-zones/


on the Oskar-Lange-Model:


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


Barca, S. (2021) Forces of Reproduction: Notes for a Counter-hegemonic Anthropocene. Elements in Environmental Humanities. Cambridge University Press.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/forces-of-reproduction/BE9B0DBDC89593F3284FE3F51D3B0418


on Donna Harraway’s ‘response-ability’:


Harraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.


https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble


Braudel, F. (1979 [1992]). Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol I-III. University of California Press.


https://www.ucpress.edu/books/civilization-and-capitalism-15th-18th-century-vol-i/paper


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


https://www.versobooks.com/products/772-neither-vertical-nor-horizontal?srsltid=AfmBOoqNKlXZJs9HrqEBU4BlAF7hbaxEzAOWD1oQCV6M_Kwtg5n9xOcO


on Otto Neurath’s political economy:


https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neurath/political-economy.html


on the quote by Otto Neurath:


Otto Neurath in O'Neill, J. (2003) ‘Socialism, Associations and the Market’, Economy and Society 32(2): 184–206


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249006144_Socialism_associations_and_the_market


on Friedrich Hayek’s argument against centralized planning:


Hayek, F. A. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society. The American Economic Review 35(4), 519-530.


https://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw.html


https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/hayek-opposes-centralized-economic-planning


Morozov, E. (2019). Digital Socialism? New Left Review 116/117.


https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii116/articles/evgeny-morozov-digital-socialism


Rochowicz, N. (2025). Planning progress: Incorporating innovation and structural change into models of economic planning. Competition & Change, 29(1), 64-82.


https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10245294231220690?


Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press.


https://web.education.wisc.edu/halverson/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2012/12/jameson.pdf


Toscano, A. & Kinkle, J. (2015). Cartographies of the Absolute. Zero Books.


https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/zer0-books/our-books/cartographies-of-the-absolute


Anderson, P. (1961). Sweden: Mr. Crosland’s Dreamland. New Left Review 1/7.


https://newleftreview.org/issues/i7/articles/perry-anderson-sweden-mr-crosland-s-dreamland-part-1


Mandel, E. (1986). In Defence of Socialist Planning. New Left Review 1/159. https://newleftreview.org/issues/i159/articles/ernest-mandel-in-defence-of-socialist-planning


Thompson, M., & Nishat-Botero, Y. (2025). Postcapitalist Planning and Urban Revolution. Competition & Change, 29(1), 101-120.


https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10245294231210980


Durand, C., Hofferberth, E. & Schmelzer, M. (2023). Planning beyond growth. The case for economic democracy within limits. Political Economy Working Papers. University of Geneva. 


https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:166429


on Barcelona En Comú:


https://barcelonaencomu.cat/


on Grupo AGBAR and the anti-privatisation movement:  


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


https://ejatlas.org/conflict/remunicipalisation-and-anti-privatization-movement-in-barcelona1


on the Socialist party of Catalonia: 


https://www.socialistes.cat/


on the airport expansion in Barcelona:


https://ejatlas.org/conflict/prat-airport-expansion-catalonia-spain


on the paper by Union Populaire: 


https://programme.lafranceinsoumise.fr/livrets/planification-ecologique/


on the quote from Mike Davis:


Davis, M. (1990). City of Quartz. Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. Verso. 


https://www.versobooks.com/products/1320-city-of-quartz?srsltid=AfmBOor1VtvQMJu_87qS8EDz0EcwP9KABUrajgH5LX2pdFNXWVC5Su6B


Future Histories Folgen


S03E59 | Cédric Durand on Ecological Planning 


https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e59-cedric-durand-on-ecological-planning/


S03E50 Aaron Benanav - Beyond Capitalism II


https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e51-aaron-benanav-beyond-capitalism-ii/


S03E49 Aaron Benanav - Beyond Capitalism I


https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e50-aaron-benanav-beyond-capitalism-i/


S03E21 | Christoph Sorg zu Finanzwirtschaft als Planung


https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e21-christoph-sorg-zu-finanzwirtschaft-als-planung/


S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning


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


S02E44 | Evgeny Morozov on Discovery Beyond Competition 


https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e44-evgeny-morozov-on-discovery-beyond-competition/


—


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


#YousafNishat-Botero, #JanGroos, #Interview, #UniversityofBirmingham, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #FutureHistories, #DemocraticPlanning, #Planning, #EconomicPlanning, #Ecology, #Socialization, #Organization, #Capitalism, #Socialism, #Municipalism, #Metabolism, #PlanetaryCrisis, #Nature, #Barcelona