Do you have opinions? We have big plans for an Opinions sections on this site, and you can write for it!
Unlike our How To articles, the Opinions section doesn’t have to be practical. It’s a space to explore a wide range of ideas that relate to autonomy and self-reliance and can be as specific or as broad as you like. We are interested in guest posts that take a position and/or share a personal experience – on politics, culture, class, land, food, labour, repair, housing, or anything else that touches on how people actually live and what gets in the way of living better. (If you are interested in contributing to our How To articles instead, get in touch.)
We are particularly interested in:
- Pieces that challenge common assumptions or cultural norms about how we live, what we own, what we eat, and where our time goes.
- Political arguments that start from how things actually are rather than how we’d like them to be.
- Personal essays where your lived experience gives the argument its authority and its humanity.
- Creative writing with a clear argument (including fiction) like alternative histories or presents, fables, allegories, or mythological framings.
What we do not want:
- Lifestyle content, product promotion, or adverts disguised as writing.
- Content that promotes discrimination, hate, or harm toward any individual or group.
- Pieces written by generative AI tools (it’s not your opinion if you haven’t put the words down yourself – if you need some support bringing your piece together, we can help with that).
Submission guidelines
- This is a guest posting opportunity, and we don’t expect you to be a professional author/writer, just someone with a perspective to share.
- We do not pay for guest posts, but we do not charge for them either (it’s crazy, but some websites do charge!). You will get a short bio and a link to your own website/blog at the end of your piece (those links are helpful for your SEO and help your ranking).
- 800 to 1,800 words is the typical length, but we will consider shorter or longer if the piece warrants it.
- We edit for spelling, grammar, and occasionally structure (so don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of experience writing articles; we’ll help you with the final polish). We will not make any substantive changes – like changing your writing style or argument – without discussion.
- We do not accept pieces that have been published elsewhere, including on your own blog or Substack.
Send us your idea!
The future Opinions section of Basic Autonomy
In case you’re unsure your idea will find a home on Basic Autonomy, here are some of the topics we thought guest posters might cover: politics, class, land and ownership, food and food culture, labour, repair and the right to repair, housing and tenure, sustainability culture, self-reliance, the environment, degrowth, rural life, community resilience, planning and policy, nature, rewilding, craft and making, preserving and fermentation culture, gardening and growing, allotments, foraging, seeds and seed sovereignty, animal husbandry, smallholding, urban growing, water, energy, heating and fuel poverty, insulation, building and construction, vernacular architecture, waste and refuse, composting, circular economy, supply chains, food systems, agriculture and farming politics, fishing, the commons and enclosure, cooperative models, mutual aid, the sharing economy, trade and exchange outside capitalism, barter, local currencies, skill-sharing, libraries of things, tools and tooling, open-source, DIY culture, the maker movement, craft revival, traditional trades, apprenticeship, education outside institutions, home education, alternative economies, degrowth and post-growth thinking, anti-consumerism, minimalism, voluntary simplicity, slow living, the good life as ideology, utopianism, solarpunk, cli-fi and climate fiction, nature writing, rural literature, pastoral myth and its politics, rewilding, conservation politics, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), colonialism and land, gentrification, urban-rural divides, the rights of tenants, planning law, green belts, development, community land trusts, cooperatives, squatting, protest and direct action, environmental activism, climate grief and climate psychology, intergenerational justice, care work, domestic labour, the informal economy, neighbourliness, the politics of time, and the intersections of all of the above with race, gender, disability, and class.