Advancing Post-Capitalist Thought During Finnish Fellowship

S. A. Hamed Hosseini commenced his one-month Visiting Fellowship at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) in late May 2025. The fellowship, supported by a competitive research grant awarded at the associate professor level, has included two major invited events hosted by Finnish academic institutions:

13 June 2025 – Book Discussion (“Capital Redefined”), Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR) Summer Days: Titled “Dismantling Capitalist Development: A Commonist Vision for Well-Living,” this session was held at the University of Helsinki (Unioninkatu 35, Room 105) and co-organized by the FSDR. Hosseini presented key arguments from his recent book, “Capital Redefined: A Commonist Value Theory for Liberating Life” (with Barry K. Gills, 2024), followed by a discussion with Dr. Bonn Juego (University of Jyväskylä) and commentaries from Dr. Prof. Sabaheta Ramčilović-Suominen Ramcilovik-Suominen (LUKE) and Prof. Franklin Obeng-Odoom (University of Helsinki). The session was recorded and followed by a networking picnic. The recording can be accessed via FSDR and Common Alternative YouTube channels: https://youtu.be/16QHEkymnTU?si=mEIYNG6gLOkdYZSM

17 June 2025 – Public Lecture at the University of Jyväskylä: Titled “Reimagining Quality of Life in a Turbulent World: A Commonist Perspective on Well-Living,” this seminar took place at Lyhty Hall, Seminaarinmäki Campus, and was hosted by the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy in collaboration with JYU.Wisdom, School of Resource Wisdom. The event focused on introducing Hosseini’s “Well-Living Paradigm” as a civilizational alternative to dominant well-being discourses. The recording can be accessed via FSDR and Common Alternatives YouTube channels: https://youtu.be/GPsvGx0xnVQ?si=NAnlSH67FfzlrdEC

These events are part of Hosseini’s broader effort to expand the global academic dialogue around Commonist Value Theory and Post-Capitalist imaginaries, anchored in his ongoing research and publications (The Well-Living Paradigm, 2023; Capital Redefined, 2024; Compartmentality and Commonist Impulses, 2025).

During the fellowship, he also initiated collaborative research and international grant-seeking initiatives in alignment with the CHSF-funded project, “Overshadowed Academic Labour in the Corporate University.” This ongoing work investigates precarious and racialized academic labor within the context of (post-)neoliberal higher education systems.

Below are links to more similar and relevant works:

• The well-living paradigm: reimagining quality of life in our turbulent world: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44282-023-00022-8

• Reclaiming Value: Commonist Theory Beyond Capitalist Abstraction and Towards Holistic Well-Living: https://youtu.be/vhMHpI-95Sc?si=oMwFw8tcL2FjLzqF

• “Re-imagining the Good Life: A nationwide meta-mapping survey of 100 grassroots initiatives in Australia ”, webinar recording: https://thecommonalts.com/re-imagining-the-good-life-webinar-recording-aviabale-on-youtube/

• Designing Questionnaires for Assessing Communal Quality of Life: A Well-Living Paradigm Study of Regional Australia’s Muslim Diaspora: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/2fmhc_v1

• Re-imagining Quality of Life Webinar Series (YouTube playlist): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqmNr-LTaqGOnH9Nlcw-Ro6JHYtx62R9a&si=YStsZYf-6TC9BZak

• Capital Redefined: A Commonist Value Theory for Liberating Life: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003340386

• Compartmentality, Commonist Impulses, and the Path to Pluriversal Transformation: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14747731.2024.2433835

• Alternative Futures Symposium Presentations (2018): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqmNr-LTaqGPRrRGCXl_xtvcHwdtsO7Mj&si=GGhNETswHCabp15i

• The Transformative Capacities of the Sustainable Development Goals (Bangladesh case): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364343925_The_Transformative_Capacities_of_the_Sustainable_Development_Goals_A_Comparison_Between_the_Global_Critical_Literature_and_Key_Development_Actors%27_Perceptions_in_Bangladesh

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FSDR’s introduction of the speaker:
“S. A. Hamed Hosseini’s academic path began in the early 1990s when he made a significant shift from electronics engineering to the social sciences, motivated by a deep concern with the question of what progressive alternatives might emerge in the wake of the Cold War and the rise of global neoliberalism. This long-standing commitment to exploring post-capitalist futures has shaped the distinctive trajectory of his scholarship.

After completing his PhD at the Australian National University in December 2006, where he introduced the concept of “accommodative consciousness” and the “sociology of dissident knowledge” (SDK, an integrative con-structuralist approach) in relation to global justice movements, Hosseini went on to develop a body of work marked by both conceptual innovation and theoretical ambition.

He is the author of “Alternative Globalizations” (2010), “Conscientious Sociology” (2013 in Persian), and “Capital Redefined” (2024, with Barry K. Gills), in addition to leading two edited collections on Transformative Global Studies (2020) and The Dilemmas of Pluriversal Transitions (2025), as well as numerous contributions to debates on “transversality,” “critical open-mindedness vs. authoritarian populism,” “pluriversal politics,” “value theory,” the “good life,” and “transformative global studies.”

At the University of Newcastle, Australia, he has founded several initiatives (including the Alternative Futures Research Network (AFRN), Well-living Lab, and Common Alternatives website) that reflect his commitment to collaborative inquiry and public scholarship.

His current work focuses on four key areas: (1) renewing critical development and globalization studies through transformative scholarship; (2) critically engaging with the pluriverse debate and post-development theory; (3) advancing a normative-analytical approach to Marxian value theory (i.e., the commonist value theory) through what he calls an “axiological turn,” inspired by his broad notions of the Commons and commoning; and (4) reimagining “quality of life” through “the well-living paradigm” (a 16k-word paper, 2023), as well as the promotion of what he calls “the commonist impulse” as an antidote to what he has coined as “compartmentality.” (in his 20k-word article, 2025, Globalizations journal).

What characterizes Hosseini’s approach is a sustained effort to build bridges across traditions, empirically map and analyze networks of and cultivate dynamic solidarities among post-capitalist initiatives, and develop what he describes as “commonist frameworks” for addressing the entangled socio-ecological crises of the unholy trinity of capitality, coloniality, and modernity.”