The biopolitics of community economies in the era of the Anthropocene

Stephen Healy

doi:10.2458/v21i1.21133

Abstract

In a recent essay Michael Hardt gives voice to a widespread discontent with the left-academic project of critique, stemming from its failure to deliver on its emancipatory promises. Scholarship, in geography and many other social science disciplines is dominated by a pre-occupation with charting the intricate connections between neoliberal governance and an expansive capitalism. As Hardt and many others have observed, the process of critical exposure fails to incite a political response from broader publics. As an alternative to the failed politics of critique, Hardt — inspired by Foucault's engagement with the cynics—argues for a practice of militant biopolitics—an autonomous mode of reflecting, thinking and acting together that eschews expert knowledge. In this paper I argue that the pioneering work of Gibson-Graham and scholars inspired by their work can be seen as a form of militant biopolitics. Collaborative and participatory forms of research and working with others, become the basis for engaging with and transforming economies and human interactions with ecologies. Beyond generating critical awareness, this scholarship aims at producing a post-capitalist politics.Keywords: Gibson-Graham, diverse economies, biopolitics, critique, post-capitalism

Highlights

In our discussion of the academic subject, we have advocated an open, concerned, and connected stance and a readiness to explore rather than judge, giving what is nascent and not fully formed some room to move and grow
What makes the CEC's approach to scholarship "militant" is () its commitment to engaging open-ended collaborative research but its collective insistence that enacting a postcapitalist research and politics is possible: an approach to economy where the present landscape is populated with non-exploitative, communal and collective social relations as well as the formation of economies directed by shared ethical commitments rather than expert knowledge
The economy itself is repositioned: no longer the object of expert knowledge, it becomes something that we collectively constitute through different ways of knowing and doing, it becomes something we can "take back" through a militant biopolitics

Summary

Introduction

In our discussion of the academic subject, we have advocated an open, concerned, and connected stance and a readiness to explore rather than judge, giving what is nascent and not fully formed some room to move and grow. The activist research of the CEC is directed by three ideas: 1) the economy as a space of difference, 2) research as part of a political practice of open-ended ethical negotiation, and 3) the importance of learning to be affected in the era of the Anthropocene. What makes the CEC's approach to scholarship "militant" is () its commitment to engaging open-ended collaborative research but its collective insistence that enacting a postcapitalist research and politics is possible: an approach to economy where the present landscape is populated with non-exploitative, communal and collective social relations as well as the formation of economies directed by shared ethical commitments rather than expert knowledge

From critique to economic difference

Research as biopolitics

Conclusion