Alternative Economies

Interest in alternative economies has grown among economic geographers alongside a global proliferation of international social movements such as the solidarity economy over the past decade. Although there is agreement that the alternative economy refers to processes of production, exchange, and consumption that differ from the so-called capitalist mainstream, scholars are divided as to how to define alternativeness theoretically. The realist approach takes the alternative to be intentional and self-conscious efforts, usually undertaken on a local scale. Frequently, these efforts are understood as embattled spaces of difference surrounded by a larger economy that threatens to erase them. The second approach relies upon the key concept of performativity; from this perspective, discourse participates in producing the reality it purports to represent. From this perspective, the marginal status of ubiquitous noncapitalist economic spaces and practices—household economies, gift giving, self-employment—are performatively constituted. The latter conceptualization of economic alternatives as ubiquitous but discursively subordinated politicizes research in a particular way. Many scholars interested in alternative economies are involved with action research projects whose aim is to illuminate and strengthen valued elements of a diverse economy and promote ethical practices of economic difference.