Summary
Contents
Subject index
`A hopeful but nonetheless hard-hitting analysis of alternative economic spaces proliferating in the belly of the capitalist beast. In this book Leyshon, Lee and Williams convene fascinating studies of exchange, enterprise, credit and community. They invite us onto a new and promising discursive terrain where we can analyze, criticize and above all recognize actually existing economies of diversity in the wealthy countries of the West' - J K Gibson-Graham, Australian National University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst In the context of problems in the "new economy" - from dot.com start-ups, high-technology, and telecoms - Alternative Economic Spaces presents a critical evaluation of alternatives to the global economic mainstream. It focuses on the emergence of alternative economic geographies within developed economies and analyzes the emergence of alternative economic practices within industrialized countries. These include the creation of institutions like Local Exchange and Trading Systems, Credit Unions, and other social economy initiatives; and the development of alternative practices from informal work to the invention of consumption sites that act as alternatives to the monoply of the `big-box', multi-chain retail outlets. Alternative Economic Spaces is a reconsideration of what is meant by the `economic' in economic geography; its objective is to bring together some of the ways in which this is being undertaken. The volume shows how the `economic' is being rethought in economic geography by detailing new economic geographies as they are emerging in practice.
The Alterity of the Social Economy
The Alterity of the Social Economy
The social economy is increasingly seen as offering an alternative to the mainstream market economy and as a new model for restoring community and democratic participation. It is claimed to provide an ideal alternative for meeting social needs, particularly in areas where conventional sources of economic growth and social cohesion have been eroded as a consequence of private sector disinvestment and/or public sector cuts. In such areas, local social economy activities are proposed as a panacea, combining the provision of innovative welfare services, entrepreneurship, employment and training, the production of socially useful goods and services, and the strengthening of vulnerable communities. For many, the most appropriate institutions to achieve these goals ...
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