Publications

Law and political economy (LPE) scholars have revived a longstanding debate over the relationship among law, capitalism, and postcapitalist possibility. Is law a creature of capitalism, destined to reproduce its dynamics of exploitation and dominance? Or are there moments of indeterminacy in law that function specifically as openings to a postcapitalist elsewhere?

The ways social theorists conceptualize the material world influences their approach to conceiving and addressing the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. This article uses panpsychist theory, which holds that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous property of the natural world, as a way of conceptualizing and developing responses to these challenges. This is done by contrasting panpsychist conceptions of materiality and consciousness with those of vital materialism and property dualist historical materialism. It is argued that the latter theories have difficulties effectively analyzing the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world in the context of the Anthropocene.

This article analyzes the digital field and the historical processes in which it was
privatized (enclosures), while alternatives of co-operative and solidary uses were
developed. The paper delves into the aspects related to the digital-virtual terri-
tory, proposing a literature survey that accounts for both privatization actions
and the so-called platform co-operativism (different from the privative). The no-
tions of common and communalization are introduced as distinct from those of
enclosure and accumulation, through a survey of classic critical social science
literature. Based on all this conceptual repositioning, the creation of a Popular
Memory Archive in a neighborhood of the City of Buenos Aires is described and

Eco-communities envision and enact practices which make a double movement: away from the ecologically destructive tendencies demonstrated by contemporary societies, and towards shared, participatory alternatives which are socially and environmentally non-exploitative. In spite of this statement, Freetown Christiania has a complex relationship with environmental sustainability, lacking many of the common understandings of that concept which underlie pro-environmental collective action (Verco 2018; Winter 2016). It also consistently deviates from many of the usual tropes or imaginaries of an eco-community, given its location in the heart of a major capital city and the absence of community-based food production.

This paper develops a multidimensional framework for sustaining care-full public spaces. We open by engaging with key understandings of the affective and relational dimensions of both public spaces and urban care scholarship. We then set out the elements of a framework for conceptualising the possibility of care-full public spaces. Writing from feminist and decolonial standpoints, we review emerging and foundational research to delineate three key components of such an approach: (1) governance, (2) materialities and design, and (3) performing public spaces. We then apply the framework, grounding our analysis of care in public spaces in a case study of caring for and as Country in Sydney, Australia.

‘Earthcare’ is a term that is emerging in environmental humanities from feminist and indigenous research and practice that aims to capture the historical relations of care between humans and nature. By bringing together the terms ‘earth’ and ‘care,’ ’Earthcare’ refers to the life-making and life-sustaining activities that maintain humans and more-than-humans in their lifeworlds. I use the term ‘care’ to mean the social, political, ecological, and embodied processes necessary to nurture relationships, responsibilities, and accountabilities for flourishing lifeworlds. I use the term ‘Earth’ to refer to all aspects of life on the planet.

Toi Taiao Whakatairanga (TTW) is a three-year transdisciplinary artistic research project based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. TTW explores the ways arts practices can contribute to public awareness of two plant pathogens threatening native tree species – kauri dieback and myrtle rust. The project commissioned and curated Māori artists to create artworks through engaging with iwi (tribes), hapū (sub-tribes), communities, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and Western science. In this chapter, we discuss two art projects from Te Tai Rāwhiti, on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

This paper introduces the Strengths, Gender, and Place (SGP) framework, a novel evaluative tool designed to assess community engagement in development programmes. Developed in response to calls for decolonized and locally-led development in the Pacific and beyond, the SGP framework comprises fifteen indicators across three dimensions. These dimensions evaluate the extent to which programmes leverage local strengths, address gender inequities, and implement place-based approaches that respect local knowledge and practices. The framework was applied to thirty project reports from four major development organisations in Papua New Guinea's Western Province. The study also incorporated insights from twenty semi-structured interviews with key informants, which further enriched the findings.

En este trabajo examinamos de manera crítica el papel dominante del hormigón en la modernización de las ciudades asiáticas desde mediados del siglo XX. Ya hace tiempo que constructores, arquitectos, urbanistas y ciudadanos destacan las ventajas del hormigón. Sin embargo, sostenemos que, en el Antropoceno, ya no es posible pensar el hormigón como un material neutro en términos sociales y medioambientales. Las fisuras del hormigón son tanto físicas como metafóricas; no solo se manifiestan en el material, sino también como problemas socioecológicos. Exploramos el lado oculto de la producción de hormigón, donde emergen esas fisuras, por medio del concepto de "lugares sombra".

The climate crisis is full of marginalized human and more-than-human voices who are systematically silenced by solution-oriented, universalizing discourses. Listening as method is the opposite of silencing; it is an experiential form of knowledge production that conveys intention and care when done cautiously. We posit climate studies can learn from feminist listening practices how to listen rather than silence. Reviewing relevant theory and case studies, we situate listening among diverse actors as becoming-in-common in-place through sound, with a focus on Arctic waters. Heightened awareness of acoustic ecologies internalizes sound to place, affecting our understanding of possible actions to enable sustainable climate futures.

Community economy scholars are interested in performing and activating more-than-capitalist visions of economy. One of the ways they do this is through mapping. This chapter begins with an exploration of the use and value of maps and mapping in community economies research with links to heritage practice. It then examines two specific examples of community economies mapping across the Australia-Asia region. The first example reveals how inventory-based mapping across Australia and Asia can act as a performative strategy for opening up ‘the economy’ to diverse trajectories for economic development.

This paper combines two fast-developing perspectives on food provision: diverse economies and temporality. Building on an in-depth study of urban gardening in Czechia, we show that non-market economies play a central role in household food practices and that their specific temporality shapes how other parts of a household’s diverse food economy are mobilised at certain times and for certain purposes. Following the diverse economies approach of reading for difference and not dominance, this paper investigates the interrelations and hierarchies among market, alternative market, and non-market food economies on the household level.

As transformative visions for more just and sustainable societies multiply around the globe, the Diverse and Community Economies approach presents one of the most influential strategies to advance postcapitalist visions. In this paper, we contribute to this project based on our research and activism in the Global East, intended here as Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We argue that engaging with the Global East is not only a matter of epistemic inclusivity but also a (too-often-neglected) opportunity to learn from a region with a history of dramatic economic transformation and diversity.

Solidarity economy is at once an economic framework, a social movement, and an intervention into and away from the ontological foundations of colonial capitalism. This short essay briefly outlines and traces the history and development of solidarity economy as a formal, named project. Drawing from fifteen years of engaged activist ethnography in Massachusetts, the essay then explores the expansion of solidarity economy discourse in the United States and beyond, concomitant with the violence of neoliberalism and the increasing incoherence and unraveling of the dominant order.

This chapter explores two case studies that highlight the author's recent work co-designing frameworks and tools to preserve the heritage and knowledge of Mapuche community economies and livelihoods in Chile. While both case studies operate within a Mapuche framework, the approach and aims differ due to the distinct landscapes, biospheres and economic contexts where they are enacted. The first case study focuses on the Mapuche communities in a mountainous region near the border of Argentina, where their presence and significance have been largely overlooked in a heavily extracted tourism setting. The second case study takes place in a coastal wetland context, where colonial farming practices have degraded the land and waters.

Editorial paper

Abstract: This special issue highlights grassroots and place-based modalities of learning. It contributes to pluriversal ways of thinking and living emanating from diverse contexts and place-based and culturally specific ways of knowing, being and doing. It is written against the backdrop of global crises and it highlights practices and possibilities emerging from diverse grassroots contexts as a way forward for human and Earthkin collective survival. Contributions in the special issue all speak to one or more of three key themes, threads that are woven in and across the collection. These are climate change adaptations, community food economies, and Indigenous language and communication tools that support grassroots living.

This chapter provides an overview of the contributions of Gibson-Graham to heterodox economics. It discusses (i) the re-framing of economic representation through the theory of Diverse Economies; (ii) the development of postcapitalist alternatives through the perspective of Community Economies; and (iii) the building of economic knowledge commons through CEI and the CERN network.

The paper reflects on the pedagogical practices of the Community Economies Institute Summer/Winter School on the theme of Researching Postcapitalist Possibilities. It is based on three years (2022, 2023, 2024) of having run the ten-day program with 120 participants. We argue that even though the school’s curriculum covers the distinctive Community Economies approach what is perhaps more important are the pedagogical exercises and principles that we use to help transform how participants think of themselves as activists, artists, practitioners, and researchers, and how they understand their role in making other economies possible.

The climate catastrophe and transgression of planetary boundaries, together with the erosion of democracy and rise of oligarchy, have intensified demands for critical reflection on capitalism. This edited collection responds to these demands, featuring contributions from scholars across the social sciences disciplines and geographical contexts. The book explores ways to rethink and retheorise capitalism through theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions. Some contributions propose ways to reform capitalism, some emphasise the need to examine it as part of diverse more-than-capitalist economic arrangements, while others invite us to reflect on what might come after capitalism.

Young people around the world are mobilising for food sovereignty: the rights of peoples to define and control their own food and agricultural systems and the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food. While food sovereignty movements are emergent and take multiple forms, they share a common frustration with the failure of established political institutions to address the needs of people and communities. This chapter shows how young people are self-organising as political actors to change global food policy discourse and practice through an autonomous International Civil Society and Indigenous People’s Mechanism (CSIPM).