Care-full Community Economies

Kelly Dombroski
Stephen Healy
Katharine McKinnon
Image of book cover, feminist political ecology and the politics of care

In this era of human-induced environmental crisis, it is widely recognized that we need to foster better ways to sustain life for people and planet. For us – and other scholars drawing on the Community Economies tradition – better worlds begin in recognising the diverse and interconnected ways human communities secure our livelihoods. Community Economies scholarship is a body of theory that evolved from the writings of geographers J.K. Gibson-Graham, which, for more than thirty years, has inspired others (including the three of us) to rethink economy as a space of political possibility.

Journeying from "I" to "we": Assembling hybrid caring collectives of geography doctoral scholars

Kelly Dombroski
Alison Watkins
Helen Fitt
Jillian Frater
Jasna Turkovic
Karen Banwell
Kieran McKenzie
Levi Mutambo
Franz Persendt
Soo Young Ko
Deirdre Hart

We describe the PhD Journey as one which is logistical, emotional and intellectual. We analyse our own experiences of collectivising aspects of doctoral study and supervision in the post-disaster context of Christchurch, describing -- and assembling -- a hybrid caring collective that included a variety of things from quakes to cakes.

Economic Geography, Manufacturing and Ethical Action in the Anthropocene: A Rejoinder

J.K. Gibson Graham
Jenny Cameron
Stephen Healy
Joanne McNeill

We are thrilled by Vicky Lawson’s deeply appreciative response to the Roepke Lecture and the written article. In her response, Vicky does more than we could ask for by inviting economic geographers to think with us about ways of reworking manufacturing (and other economic activities) that center on care for the well-being of people and of the planet. Vicky goes to the heart of our project by highlighting the importance we place on looking for the ethical openings that arise in the current context of climate change and growing socioeconomic inequality.

Radical equality, care and labour in a community economy

Gradon Diprose

The reproductive and care work predominantly undertaken by women has historically been undervalued in traditional measures of the economy. However, calls for more work, or better work for women (and men) doesn’t necessarily solve the issues surrounding waged labour such as zero hour contracts, the ‘double work day’, and other forms of increasing precarity and competition. In this article I explore how alternative forms of labour exchange in the Wellington Timebank provide one way in which subjects can partially operate outside the waged economy.