This book asks how, in European history, our relationship with nature has been mediated through cities, work, science, technology, the state and markets. The First Left opened up civic freedoms; the Second, the horizon of labour and social justice; the Third, questions of recognition, culture and internal nature. The task of the Fourth Left is not to abandon these achievements, but to bring them together anew on the basis of the conditions of life. The programme of action that concludes the book translates this task into political objectives and initiatives through which shared responsibility for the conditions of life can be put into practice.
This requires commoning reproduction: maintaining, repairing and developing food provision, housing, health, care, education, work, energy, infrastructure, local ecosystems and shared time. Nature as a co-worker does not mean subordinating it to production as an instrument. It means learning from nature's own rhythms, limits and creative possibilities. Nature as an ally means that our security and hope rest not on conquering it, but on building viable relationships. Nature as a fellow traveller reminds us that we travel neither alone nor solely for ourselves.
From this starting point, the task of politics is not to secure life as a by-product of growth. Its task is to make preserving, repairing and developing life's texture a shared purpose - for the planet, for the people.