Contribution short abstract

Metabolism describes a relation between living beings and their environments; social freedom concerns a relation between human beings within the context of an institutionally ordered social world. Our talk asks: How might these two concepts be fruitfully brought together in social theorizing?

Contribution long abstract

Metabolism describes a relation and process between living beings and their environments; social freedom concerns a relation between human beings within the context of an institutionally ordered social world. Our talk asks: How might these two concepts be fruitfully brought together in social theorizing? Can social freedom be understood beyond an anthropocentric context, such that the human relation to nature is an essential aspect of realizing social freedom? Drawing on some earlier insights from both German philosophy and critical theory, we propose that social theorizing in the 21st century must understand social freedom and metabolism as essentially intertwined. A starting point for understanding this intertwinement is the labor process, which, we argue, is the materialist basis for social freedom.