The climate crisis is accelerating, but efforts to address it through ‘green transition’ policies often reflect a ‘business as usual’ approach, perpetuating the same capitalist logic and deepening global inequalities. This dynamic is also visible on the European periphery – particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring Serbia – where lithium extraction projects are planned to supply raw materials for electric vehicle battery production and the arms industry in the centre, while disregarding the concerns about the social and ecological damage and the livelihoods of entire communities.
It is evident that addressing the global climate crisis requires radical systemic change. How can production and work be organised around social needs and ecological limits rather than endless profit accumulation? How can land, energy, housing and public services be taken out of the logic of commodification? What forms of collective control are needed over the decisions that shape our lives and environments? How can struggles for social and ecological justice build alliances across borders, sectors and communities? And how can social movements, workers, communities and political actors turn resistance into lasting political power?
The EcoSoc Conference in Sarajevo aims to put these questions up for dialogue between activists, academics, workers, scholars and political actors from South East Europe and other regions of the world. It brings different theoretical and conceptual approaches to ecosocialism into conversation with concrete political practices and explores how social movements, trade unions, communities, political actors and international networks can build power together.
