The cause of labor is the hope of the earth

William Morris and regrowth communism

Bibliographic Data

ID19224904
AuthorsKye Anderson Barker (0000-0001-5508-5097, Smith College, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Political Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-8851 • E-ISSN: 1741-2730
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14748851261450181
OpenAlexW7161650448
LanguageEN
References cited23

What resources does the history of political thought offer for confronting the democratic and ecological crises of the present? Through a reconstruction of the political thought of William Morris within the context of late nineteenth century socialism, I show how he built a vision of ecological flourishing on the foundation of the democratic freedom of workers, which I call “regrowth communism.” According to Morris, only in the struggle of workers for freedom through fellowship is earthly flourishing possible, since mastery degrades both human and nonhuman life. Reading Morris's vision of economic freedom and earthly wealth in the late nineteenth century not only gives us a fuller picture of this moment in the history of political thought, but also a vision of a democratic and sustainable form of life that might provide hope in this moment of dual crises

Communism · Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Flourishing · Freedom of thought · Political freedom · Politics · Reading (process) · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Legal and Social Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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