Making other economies possible: geographies of ethical action

In the late 1990s J.K. Gibson-Graham introduced the idea of a ‘diverse economy’ to try and unsettle the discursive dominance of ‘the capitalist economy’ with its normalizing effects on thought and behaviour. A diverse economy includes not only capitalist economic activities but also the plethora of other economic transactions that support peoples’ lives. Gibson-Graham’s strategic intent was to inspire research and action around imagining and enacting postcapitalist economies. This chapter provides insights into what made the diverse economies research programme that Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson (as J.K. Gibson-Graham) initiated. It begins with stories from our action research projects that illustrate how we have worked with communities to ‘take back the economy’ for people and the planet. It then traces the genealogy of our collective authorship and the theoretical challenges and political responses we encountered. As feminist geographers interested in political economy, we have been able to develop a distinctively ‘anti-essentialist’ approach to making other economies possible.