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Capitalism vs. Love

An exploration of the fundamental tension between capitalist logic and our human need for love, connection, and community. This course examines how economic systems shape our personal lives and how we can reclaim love as a revolutionary force.

Taught by Laura Basu, PhD

Live Online

Course Overview

An exploration of the fundamental tension between capitalist logic and our human need for love, connection, and community. This course examines how economic systems shape our personal lives including our identities, bodies and relationships, and how we can reclaim love as a revolutionary force.

Who Is This Course For?

Those who seek a deep, holistic and critical framework with which to understand world events
Those who want to explore the links between the personal and political
Those who do not want to diminish their visions and dreams for a better world
Those wishing to explore the revolutionary potential of love

What You'll Learn

A deep understanding of what capitalism is and how it works
A practical understanding of how systems of oppression – including racism, classism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism – are structurally embedded in capitalism
A grounded understanding of intersectionality and the common roots of oppression
A personal analysis of how capitalism shapes your own life
A personal vision for an economy that would help you thrive
A concrete, personal action plan for transformation

What's Included

Live Sessions

Interactive classes with your instructor

Session Recordings

Lifetime access to all recordings

Community Access

Connect with fellow learners

Certificate

Proof of course completion

Course Modules

Introduction: What Is Capitalism? And What Is Love?

We establish working definitions of capitalism and introduce a holistic framework for analysing it. We also explore bell hooks’ concept of the love ethic and love as a means of liberation.

Race

We examine the relationship between capitalism and race, and begin exploring love as an ethic, vision, practice and force.

Gender

We examine the relationship between capitalism and gender, and continue our exploration of love as an ethic that can help us transform the world at its root.

The Gender Binary

We analyse the pivotal role of the gender binary for capitalist extraction, and explore love as a vision for a better world.

Ableism

We look at the integral role of ableism within capitalism, and explore love as a political practice, strategy and tactics for radical change.

The family

We examine the family as a core institution of capitalism, and consider love as a powerful force for transformation.

A world of love

We collectively envision the world we want

Conclusion and personal project

We bring it all together and share personal projects

Real-World Project

Learners will choose one of the following strands: ● Analyse how capitalism shapes your own life ● Develop a personal vision for an a new economic system that would enable you to thrive ● Create a personal action plan for transformation

About the Instructor

Laura Basu, PhD

Independent Scholar

Dr. Basu is an independent scholar who writes about capitalism and love. She is a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, faculty at the School of Radical Imagination and is openDemocracy's former economics editor. She writes a Substack called Loveconomics.

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Format

Live Online

Class Size

25 students max

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Engaging in Feedback Dialogues for Liberation

Feedback is often positioned as a tool for effectiveness, productivity, improvement, which denote a certain performative culture and which can be experienced as monological and judgement. Yet feedback should be first and foremost an opportunity for authentic dialogue, for people of all contexts to encounter suggestions, questions, words of advice and wisdom and sometimes dissonances. These conversations, when embedded in brave spaces, can be liberating and emancipatory. Drawing from Paulo Freire's dialogic attributes, this course explores the potential of relational feedback encounters grounded in pedagogy of liberation. It will support people in encountering the tension between suggestion and accountability. Drawing on doctoral research into student (dis)engagement with feedback, the course offers a nuanced exploration of why people sometimes ignore, resist, or emotionally disengage from the very feedback intended to support them. Rather than treating feedback as a technical instrument (a set of comments to improve performance), we examine it as a relational encounter. Feedback is not simply transmitted; it is received, interpreted, felt, negotiated, and often transformed. When framed as a dialogical experience, feedback becomes a site of meaning-making shaped by emotion, identity, power, and context. This shift opens possibilities for deeper engagement and more sustainable practices. Participants will explore the conditions that must exist before feedback can be taken up. Because feedback must first be received (cognitively and emotionally) attention will be given to climate-building practices that foster a sense of mattering. Practical moves will be shared for supporting individuals who may be particularly sensitive to perceived criticism, including neurodivergent people with rejection sensitivity. We will investigate multiple forms of feedback dialogue: inner feedback, peer feedback, and 'expert' feedback. Additionally, we will surface often-invisible dynamics that shape engagement. Power asymmetries between people can influence whether feedback is welcomed, negotiated, or rejected. By making these dynamics visible, we can better design feedback interactions that invite participation rather than compliance. Throughout the course, participants will engage with tools, embodied teaching practices, and reflective activities designed to strengthen relationality in feedback interactions. This workshop ultimately invites all of us to rethink feedback not as a technique to perfect, but as a relational and reflexive posture.

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Live Online20 students max4 sessions

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The World on our Plates: Culture, Politics, and Food Systems

This course takes as its starting point something we all need in order to survive - food - and examines how the personal is entwined with the social and the political. It must be clear this is not a course on “clean” eating or dieting - rather, it aims to examine how our individual choices are shaped by the larger food systems around us. Together, we will examine the various systems and processes leading to the food that ends up on our plates - where it comes from, what it is made up of, who is involved in putting it together - to reflect on larger questions around culture, cuisine, and community. Figuratively speaking, we are less interested in the breaking of bread than in the actual baking of bread. That is to say, whilst the symbolic and cultural elements of food are generally known, this course aims to focus squarely on the material dimensions of how food is made. We will consider how questions around labour, migration, race & gender, coloniality, capitalism and the climate crisis are wrapped up in the production of food. Together, we'll consider how our choices around the food we consume are shaped by the larger social and political contexts we are a part of. We'll see how these contexts affect our lives - not just nutritionally, but socially and environmentally as well. Our weekly sessions will culminate in a bread-making workshop led by Josefina Venegas Meza, a professional baker & pastry chef who has worked in some of London's best kitchens. In addition to acquiring a practical and valuable skill, we intend this practise-based session to function as an opportunity to personally reflect on the various topics we've covered together, and how they might apply in our individual lives. You will also receive a comprehensive and exclusive bread-making handbook with all the essential information you might need to refer back to should you wish to continue baking in future.

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We are living in a time when environmental conversations are often dominated by crisis, urgency, and fear. The narratives we hear most frequently focus on collapse, destruction, and emergency. While these realities cannot be ignored, constantly operating from this place can leave us feeling overwhelmed, drained, and powerless. What if there was another way to engage with this work? This course invites you to explore the environmental and sustainability space from a different perspective, one rooted in empowerment, connection, and renewal rather than stress and overwhelm. Over time, the sustainability field has increasingly been shaped by institutions, corporations, and NGOs. While many important efforts happen within these spaces, the deeper essence of environmental stewardship, the relationship between people, land, culture, and ancestral knowledge, can sometimes get lost. This course creates space to reconnect with that essence. Rather than approaching sustainability purely as an intellectual or technical subject, we will explore how to embody other ways of being that allow us to engage with the environmental field from a place of authenticity, care, and inspiration. Drawing from environmental psychology, behavioral change, storytelling, and ancestral wisdom, participants will explore how inner transformation can lead to more meaningful external impact. When we lead from this place, we are able to contribute to healthier systems while showing up with less guilt, less pressure, and more clarity, purpose, and power. By the end of the course, you will feel more empowered to engage with environmental work from a place of inspiration, grounded in a deeper connection to the land, to community, and to the wisdom that has guided humans for generations. Throughout the course, we will reflect on questions such as: - How can we engage with environmental work from a deeper, more life-affirming place that invites both ourselves and others into the conversation? - How can we move from intellectual understanding to embodied practice in sustainability? - How can personal transformation shape broader transformation in global systems? - How can we design and share initiatives, ideas, or projects that emerge from inspiration and authenticity rather than pressure or urgency? - How can we lead and communicate in ways that reconnect people to the land and to each other?

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