Alternative Economic Practices Research Articles

Joining the ideational and the material: transforming food systems toward radical food democracy

This paper presents a conceptualization of radical food democracy (RFD) which links the diverse economies approach of Gibson-Graham with Tully’s notion of diverse citizenship. Despite its invaluable contribution to theorizing the role of alternative food networks (AFNs) in transforming unsustainable industrial food systems, the diverse economies scholarship has been criticized for essentializing the autonomy of alternative economic practices—hence risking to confound emancipatory social change with punctuated forms of “local,” “quality,” “organic certified” products, which nevertheless remain embedded in market-mediated capitalist relations, and displacement and/or deferral of negative impacts. This paper aims to address such critiques, contending that the realization of RFD requires both (1) the experimentation with new economic practices that carve out food economies alternative to the working logic of capital accumulation, and (2) the cultivation of new political subjects capable of universalizing these particular struggles. After situating various existing practices associated with food democracy in a framework of various modes of democratic citizenship, we underpin our understanding of RFD with a theory of change informed by Bob Jessop’s strategic-relational approach to social structures, agents’ reflexive actions, and their contingency. Following a critical scientific approach to the social role of academics, this theoretical framework is illustrated using a case study from Germany. The empirical work draws on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with leaders of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) cooperatives and Food Policy Council (FPC) networks conducted in Cologne, Berlin, and Frankfurt in 2018–2020. To conclude, this paper argues that the emancipatory potential of food democracy should cultivate both lighthouse alternative economic practices that are connected with people’s everyday lives, and political imagination that dares to critically engage with existing institutions. Likewise, RFD praxis requires a constant back and forth between the ideational and the practical, the abstract and the concrete, the actionable and the analytical, to challenge both the symbolic-discursive and the material dimensions of capitalist agri-food systems.

Personal and community values behind sustainable food consumption: a meta-ethnography

Various aspects of sustainable food consumption have been studied within the Social Sciences in the last years. Specifically, the analysis of motivations and determinants behind alternative economic practices has gained prominence in disciplines such as Sociology, Psychology, Economics and Marketing, seeking to understand, measure and calculate consumers’ decision-making processes and actions through the application of cognitive theories and qualitative predictive models. Anthropology—more specifically through the practice of ethnography—, has also made significant contributions, mostly toward the analysis and description of contemporary cooperative experiences, both in rural and urban settings. However, within this field, few studies have focused on the underlying values, as well as the symbolic, emotional/affective, and identity-based incentives that exist behind the participation in sustainable, pro-environmental, organic, and fair-trade food initiatives. This kind of perspective might help in comprehending how different people or social groups conceptualize their habits and link them to certain representations or beliefs. At the same time, it can provide information about the way in which action-related values appear in discourse and become embodied, whether they are uniform, conflicting, precede practice or emerge as a post-personal reflection of those involved. Through a review, synthesis, and analysis of qualitative literature—meta-ethnography—this paper seeks to present an overview of available academic work on the social, political, personal, material, and ethical reasons associated with partaking in alternative food networks. The findings will be analyzed and discussed in relation to a constructivist perspective, as well as debates around identity, social distinction, and gender.

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

The Wageless Life of Creative Workers: Alternative Economic Practices, Commoning and Consumption Work in Cultural Labour

This article argues the importance of considering wageless life and related post-wage regimes of work in the study of creative and cultural labour. Such consideration is necessary to understand how creative workers persevere in their profession, dedicating substantial amounts of time to making art in spite of prolonged precarity and low, irregular or non-existent wages. The article revisits sociological studies of creative work and finds that although such studies have tended to neglect the wageless life of creative workers they have nonetheless implicitly identified a range of alternative economic activities and ‘consumption work’ practices that go beyond wages and formal contractual employment. These activities include everyday strategies for ‘getting by’, such as barter, self-provisioning, commoning, thrift and downshifting. A systematic and sustained focus on wageless life that treats work as deeply enmeshed in everyday life is needed in order to make manifest the hidden politics of contemporary post-waged creative work.

The “Lucky Money” That Started It All—The Reinvention of the Ancient Tradition “Red Packet” in Digital Times

In August 2020, President Trump attempted to ban WeChat, indicating the growing impact of the most widely used social medium in China. WeChat enjoys a monthly active user base of 1.2 billion, but the Internet giant’s story started with a humble function, “Red Packet.” The function of Red Packet paved the way for WeChat to intelligently integrate into the Chinese financial sphere. This study examines the cultural, economic, and relational implications of the digital reinvention of traditional red packet gifts, and monetary giving that represents good luck and well wishes in festive situations. Drawing upon Mauss’ conceptualization of gift economy within the context of contemporary China and the art of social relationships, “ guanxi,” the author closely examines Tencent’s annual report and conducts semi-structured interviews to study WeChat Red Packet (hereafter WCRP) gifting. This article concludes that (1) the obligatory feeling of guanxi management renders WCRP giving, receiving, and reciprocity compulsory practices; (2) WCRP facilitates “immediate reciprocity,” in which, instrumental guanxi may be produced and dissolved instantaneously; (3) the phenomena of social comparison and social hierarchy are mirrored in virtual groups; (4) with platformed sociality and monetizing connectivity, WCRP paved the way for alternative economic practices within Chinese authoritarian capitalism; and (5) WCRP contains characteristics of a personalized gift and materialist commodity.

Participation and Alternative Economic Practice: Discourses, Identities and Imaginaries of Change

In the context of economies referred to as diverse or different, Alternative Economic Practices (AEP) are actions that, alternative to capitalism in varying degrees, aim to fulfil people's basic needs. The Great Recession of 2008 gives a new incentive to their theoretical and empirical analysis as a result of the new meaning given to alternative economic and political spaces, particularly in an area hit hard by the crisis – Southern Europe. This paper examines an aspect hardly represented in academic literature: the profile of the social basis of alterna-tive economic practices and its operational significance. By means of the frameworks provided by institutional economic geography and contributions made by the theo-ry on urban social movements as well as social mobilisation, it explores the characteristics of the social basis of Spanish AEP using that which prior studies highlighted from the profile of the participants in Greek practices as a point of comparison and reference. We suggest that the contextual conditions determine the attributes of the key actors and the strategies to challenge the existing social institutions and structures and mobilise the social forces to support collective projects that contradict the dominant relations. The result is that of nominally identi-cal AEP, belonging to a common alternative repertoire yet composed of social bases with clearly distinct pro-files. This means that both are built upon different values, discourses, motivations and identities, leading to their varied geographical significance and potential to transform.

Time's up: Analyzing the feminist potential of time banks

AbstractTime banks are an alternative economic system proposed to address social problems by stimulating work and exchange through time‐based currency. They aim to redefine work and money, through building social capital to alleviate social problems. As women are disproportionately affected by these problems, it follows that membership is predominantly female, often poor. This article takes the position that time banks provide a lens through which to theorize the feminist potential of alternative forms of economic organization. It examines the ways in which feminists, and time banks, have sought to redefine the concepts of work and money, as well as the context of time banks within the Third Sector. “The reality” of these concepts in practice is then critically analyzed using empirical data from a year as an active participant within a time bank. The findings demonstrate the complex issues regarding how the time bank functioned in practice, particularly in relation to how members engaged with it, and articulated their participation. Further, the way in which the system co‐opted feminist potentials of alternative economic practices as part of the Third Sector, through a conception of social capital, is shown to be problematic in terms of exploiting the energies of already exploited women. This research shows the need for ongoing critical examination of initiatives targeted at social problems, particularly those mirroring feminist activism, in order to prevent the co‐option of energies and work.

A atualidade da teoria dos circuitos na compreensão das práticas econômicas populares: o caso da Economia Criativa em Araraquara/SP

As práticas econômicas alternativas estão em evidência no contexto brasileiro do século XXI. Constatamos, nesse sentido, a existência de feiras econômicas em Araraquara que reforçam a temática da economia urbana. Dessa maneira, sob o apoio de um governo municipal eleito em 2016 com o slogan “Cidade Solidária e Participativa”, é necessário que se construam iniciativas de compreensão do fenômeno da Economia Solidária e Criativa no município de Araraquara. Para tanto, recorremos à Geografia para fornecer arcabouço teórico-metodológico de referência ao entendimento da problemática. Em específico, foi utilizada a teoria dos circuitos econômicos de Milton Santos (2018), que constata, nos países subdesenvolvidos, a fragmentação da economia urbana em dois circuitos. A proposta, então, qualificou essas práticas econômicas como representativas do circuito inferior da economia urbana, que almeja fornecer ocupação nos circuitos gerais da produção de valores. A partir disso, com a realização de uma pesquisa empírica nas edições da “Rolêfeira”, aplicação de entrevistas e questionários com os sujeitos sociais de interesse, a finalidade do trabalho foi observar a importância desses empreendimentos enquanto estratégias que buscam superar o desemprego e promover o desenvolvimento econômico e social em Araraquara, bem como compreender a própria interface de comunicação estabelecida entre a sociedade civil e o governo municipal.

Industrial possibilities and false necessity: rethinking production, employment and labor dynamics in the global economy1

AbstractMuch of contemporary comparative political–economic thinking about global industrial production accepts the following claims (a) that manufacturing is destined to leave rich political economies for lower wage ones; (b) that global industrial production is hierarchically structured with higher value operations concentrated in the rich countries and intermediate component production distributed across increasingly specialized clusters in emerging political economies; (c) that digital technological advance, automation and massive platform firms are ushering in a new historical regime of capitalism that is generating high rates of inequality and threatens to thoroughly degrade work for less educated and less skilled workers all over the globe. This article argues that these three arguments are deeply flawed because they present only a partial picture of contemporary global industrial dynamics. They exclude from view many concurrent developments that suggest that alternative political and economic practices and trajectories are possible. And they downplay the role that politics and struggle have played and can play in the constitution of the political economy. By deconstructing these three arguments, this article attempts to recover possibility from the constraints of false necessity in thinking about global industrial production dynamics.

Contributions to the debate on the agendas of the social economy in the culture or Turkey

: Globalization of the economy and the dynamics of the market mechanism have brought about numerous problems for both individuals and society in general. Environmental problems, lack of sufficient information being conveyed between market and consumers, lack of information concerning the processes of producing etc. are the examples of the problems that are brought about by the market mechanism. Alternative economic practices are being constituted by individuals in various forms of association such as collectives, entrepreneurs etc. in order to cope with those problems mainstream capitalist economy caused through creating social values for the common good. The concept of solidarity economy is being adopted in the article in order to indicate these alternative economic practices; and the main of this article is to shed light on the solidarity patterns of the activities relied on nonmainstream economy within the scope of some cases in the light of four cases from Turkey.

On the Significance of Alternative Economic Practices: Reconceptualizing Alterity in Alternative Food Networks

In heterodox economic geography, there is an ongoing debate as to how our economic, social, and environmental needs may be better addressed by organizing the economy differently, through more equitable and more sustainable practices. This calls for further studying and discussing alternative economic practices in a diverse economy. In this article, existing alternative economic practices within agrifood systems—specifically alternative forms of connecting producers and consumers—are explored, primarily on a conceptual but also an empirically grounded level. The article makes two conceptual contributions: First, it offers a comprehensive review of the literature and, with an emphasis on contributions by economic geographers, clarifies the meaning of alterity in alternative food systems. It reveals the hitherto limited focus on either alternative products or alternative distribution networks. In light of this limitation and the ongoing incorporation of characteristics of alternative food by conventional food industries for profit purposes, second, it extends those insights by reconceptualizing alterity—namely, by introducing alternative economic practices as an important third pillar of alternative food networks (AFNs). Empirically, by presenting two newly emerging models of AFNs from Berlin and Frankfurt—which go beyond just offering alternative food stuffs or using alternative distribution networks and instead aim at de-commodifying the food system—the article provides a closer view on existing alternative economic practices, highlighting the ways in which they think and perform the economy otherwise.

Urban Resilience and The Alternative Economy: A Methodological Approach Applied to Northern Spain*

ABSTRACT In urban contexts of prolonged economic crisis, there emerge new forms of economies that express a different way for producers and consumers to have an active presence in the market and be agents in the city’s economy. The initiative is taken above all by the most vulnerable groups, which seek creative unconventional responses to their situation, with or without the intervention of public authorities. This reaction is interpreted in this study as urban resilience, and it is linked to the concept of sustainability and a series of alternative economic practices that should be analyzed via a specific methodology that allows us to understand their nature and scope. As a result, our research question is twofold. First, can operative criteria be established to identify and typify these new forms of urban economy? And, related to the previous question, what influence does the phenomenon have on medium-sized cities? We define medium-sized cities as cities that have a population of between 50,000 and 250,000 people as well as activities and functions that position the city dynamically within the surrounding urban system (Andrés López 2008). To these ends, this investigation spans three phases: a theoretical-conceptual review; definition of criteria and classification of alternative or resilient economic practices; and a case study focused on the city of León in northern Spain, for the purpose of understanding the phenomenon and its relative scope.

The ongoing aftermath to the financial crisis and the Great Recession

This article discusses the consequences of the financial crisis that started in 2008 in the West, and particularly in the United States, as a manifestation of neoliberal capitalism’s multiple failures. In doing so, it focuses on the scholarly contributions of Manuel Castells and his colleagues in two important books: Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis (2012) and Another Economy is Possible (2017). Both books are collective works led and edited by Castells. Also included in the review is a third book by Castells, Rupture: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy (2018), which can be read as a statement on some of the political consequences of the 2008 financial crisis and a report on the current crisis of liberal democracy. The contention is that Castells et al. make an important contribution to the socio-economic literature on the financial crisis, its consequences, and the interpretation of the societal changes that ensued and are key to understand our contemporary world. Such contribution, as observed in the three books under review, can be summarized as follows: (1) Castells and colleagues provide cases and examples from around the world in a broad comparative fashion, thus expanding our understanding of a crisis that was essentially a crisis of the West with ramifications in other countries but never a truly global crisis. (2) The approach of Castells and his colleagues is interdisciplinary and goes beyond purely economic arguments to include sociological, political and cultural ideas and insights that help us understand the complexity of the historical period under analysis; readers develop an awareness of the systemic character of the crisis, where all events were closely interrelated; in particular, both micro and macro processes leading to the crisis converged into a mutually dialectical and reinforcing relationship that warrants the contention by the authors that ‘economies’ are ‘cultures.’ (3) The authors in both Aftermath and Another Economy is Possible focus on the (long) aftermath of the crisis, which is still ongoing as of September 2019 around the world; in fact, one of Castells’ main points is that the financial crisis brought about irreversible societal change, ongoing and clearly visible today, as it triggered a significant restructuring of global informational capitalism. (4) The authors provide a focus on one of the reactive consequences of the crisis: alternative economic practices developing in the aftermath of the crisis, under the premise that we might be witnessing the rise of a new economic model based on new, alternative values. (5) Castells provides a discussion (in Rupture) of aspects of the contemporary political landscape a decade after the outset of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

Sharing cities: creating space and practice for new urban agency, capacities and subjectivities

ABSTRACTIn recent years, cities across the world have witnessed the emergence of alternative economic practices that have come to challenge norms related to production and consumption. Although a plethora of research has started to emerge on this sharing economy, less attention has been paid to community-led and potentially transformative sharing practices that prioritize peer-to-peer collaboration, equity, and increasing social capital above financial benefits. Following the work of a community-based initiative Share Sydney, this research seeks to understand practices of communal sharing as they emerge in the City of Sydney, Australia. Drawing analysis particularly from the group’s Sharing Map project, we explore how communal sharing initiatives like Share Sydney are constituting sharing practice and seeking to develop new kinds of urban agency, capacities, and subjectivities that may feed progressive community development towards more socially just and environmentally sustainable Sharing Cities.

Alternative economic practices in Spanish cities: from grassroots movements to urban policies? An institutional perspective

ABSTRACTAlternative economic practices (AEPs) challenge capitalism and have flourished in Spain since 2008, when the economic, social, and political crisis severely hit the country. Cities are the principal places in which these practices are developing because unemployment, poverty, and foreclosures quickly rose in urban areas between 2008 and 2015. After the local election in 2015, left-wing coalitions took office in the major Spanish cities. These new governments replaced the former neoliberal and pro-growth coalitions and assumed the promotion for alternative economic modes of coordination as a part of their political agendas and new regulations. This article draws on institutional theory to frame the locally contingent outcomes of the interaction between alternative institutions and formal regulation in six Spanish cities. Empirically, we found that comprehensive plans by local authorities to enhance AEPs led to mutual reinforcement of regulations and institutions in Madrid and Barcelona. In contrast, institutions of AEPs in Oviedo, Valencia, and Valladolid substituted for the absence of regulatory response. Finally, Salamanca illustrates the case of competition between AEP institutions and local regulations, which even worked to replace AEPs.

Diverse and alternative economic practice in the Trailer Park Boys series, 2002–2018

ABSTRACTThe Trailer Park Boys series has received academic attention, much of which has been overtly critical. This study utilizes Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies framework to evaluate the show and its film adaptations. It argues that the show exemplifies alternative and informal economic practices which include alternative (non-capitalistic) businesses; substitute employee payment modes; alternative currencies; unpaid labor; and varying non-market practices, the most common being theft. These resident-led practices aid characters with multiple identities and worker roles in surviving a life bound by limited opportunity of formal work. In chorus with illegal and legal economic schemes, the community economy of Sunnyvale Trailer Park stimulates ethical decision-making in character interactions and in decision-making around topics such as surplus labor and profit management. Ecologically, various characters have reconstituted their relationship with their waste-filled area of residence, and some have gone as far as to provide provisional public goods to other park residents.

Enchanted consumption and the gift(s) of diaspora

This article explores consumption practices in Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow (1983) and Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House (2007), which it reads as a macroeconomic critique. This critique repositions “diaspora” as a concept with a distinctive lineage in modern and contemporary migration literary narratives that articulate alternative models of economic exchange through representations of food and eating. In my reading, diaspora is not only a sociological group orientation or a conceptual lens on the interiorized subjectivity arising from involuntary migration; it is also a set of alternative economic practices that confront global commodity culture through quotidian acts of consumption. Marshall and Oyeyemi both employ the literary device of “enchanted consumption” to contest the premise of consumer passivity found in traditional models of commodity fetishism. Enchanted consumption accomplishes this by overlying global material exchange networks, local embodied consumption practices, and generic alternations between realism and fabulism. When read together, these three elements in particular suggest an under-examined economic dimension of diaspora that challenges dominant systems of valuation and exchange through the enactment of alternative gift economies. More specifically, Marshall and Oyeyemi depict black female characters struggling with choices about foodstuffs. This specificity is important, as it suggests that enchanted consumption derives most directly from the experiences of women in African diasporic culture. By including food in the constellation of other concerns faced by these women (domestic labour and childbirth, in particular) and, further, by understanding their consumption of food as a critical commentary on exchange systems, these authors disclose how the deeply personal consumption acts of black diasporic women advance an embodied critique of transnational capitalism that connects the globally dispersed sites of diaspora through local, gift-oriented approaches to food.

Diversifying Economic Practices in Meal Sharing and Community Gardening

This article aims to contribute to the diverse economies program of Gibson‐Graham. By studying the economic activities of participants of two Dutch food initiatives, we make diverse economic practices visible. Semi‐structured interviews were our main research method. Our analysis shows alternative, nonmarket, and noncapitalist elements, displaying inventiveness, creativity, and ease to cross borders between mainstream and alternative economic options. We explored the microscale reality of creating alternatives, focusing on how participants explore economic spaces and shape these. We demonstrate that people diversify their economic practices so as to better fit these into their daily lives. Especially the crossing of the public–private divide makes space for these alternative economic practices. Hence, respondents aim to expand their “repertoires of action”, looking to engage in activities that are useful, challenging, and enjoyable, and that enable the inclusion of ethical and pragmatic values. However, while rewarding, these alternative economic practices are also insecure and precarious. We suggest that rather than assessing diverse economic practices on their effects of ending the dominance of mainstream capitalist economies, they should be evaluated regarding the way in and degree to which they enable an expansion of repertoires of economic action.

Nickel mining in northern New Caledonia - a path to sustainable development?

Mining is associated with unsustainable development pathways and frequently, local communities are affected by environmental degradation and social upheavals. In many developing countries, its macroeconomic effects are negative and promote conflict. At the same time, the resource sector is an engine of economic growth.The Koniambo nickel project in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia is unusual compared to other large-scale projects worldwide. Kanak independence aspirations resulted in the Koniambo project, as an ‘instrument’ for their economic and political emancipation from France.The mining operator KNS, a joint venture of the local, Kanak dominated SMSP and the Swiss group Glencore, is taking measures to reduce environmental impacts, privileging local employment and supporting ethical business practices. I examine the success of KNS operations through its sustainable development report and based on several years of fieldwork in and around the site. I discover a mixed picture. Alternative economic practices of benefit to the Kanak population are less than successful, and social disparities within indigenous communities are widening. Customary land is being commodified and developed, driven by neoliberal goals. Like other large-scale mining companies in New Caledonia, KNS profits from tax exemptions. To contribute to a true sustainable development with less ‘green-washing’, Koniambo needs to provide solidarity-based criteria for subcontracting, and pay appropriate taxes to the New Caledonian administration. The political authorities need to establish a wealth fund for future generations and should initiate economic diversification before dividends from the nickel sector fill its coffers.

The Degrowth Movement: Alternative Economic Practices and Relevance to Developing Countries

This article explores the degrowth movement’s main ideas, policy proposals, and examples of noncapitalist organizations and socially embedded economic networks compatible with degrowth ideas, namely, the Catalan Integral Cooperatives in Spain and Solidarity Economy Networks in Italy. It also explores degrowth’s relevance to developing countries that have lower levels of material living standards compared to the European countries where it originated. The main argument of this article is that degrowth has significant potential to advance progressive socioecological transformation. Its advocates have also implemented some interesting alternative economic practices, such as nonmonetary exchanges and recreations of the commons, which prioritize socioecological sustainability over profit maximization. However, the degrowth movement has so far paid little attention to the structural hierarchy of the global political economy and hence has not made sufficient suggestions about how to address uneven development within and between countries, which will likely hinder progressive and ecologically sustainable transitions across the globe. Unfair global trade practices and concentrated control over advanced technologies are contentious points that might prevent widespread support for degrowth ideas in developing countries. Some developing countries and subnational local groups also face more constraints than others if they want to scale-up noncapitalist initiatives that are compatible with the degrowth vision, not to mention that some might lack financial means to drive transformative change. These issues cut across the spheres of production, consumption, trade, and finance, which suggests that structural reforms of the global political economy are called for to address unequal relations between developed and developing countries and also inequality within countries.