Alternative Economies and Spaces : New Perspectives for a Sustainable Economy

Abstract

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.Cover concept: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld Cover illustration: Alexandra Kaiser, Eichstätt, 2011 Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar ISBN 978-3-8376-2498-4 Content AcknowledgementsThe volume in hand contains a collection of contributions that are concerned with alternative modes of economic and social exchange, among them alternative currency schemes, fair trade, and social enterprises. Earlier versions of these papers have been presented in the context of the study program 'Space -Society -Economy' at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt during the winter term 2011/12. This new program was established on the initiative of the Geography Department as a platform that aims to introduce, discuss and advance new concepts and debates at the intersections between geography, the social sciences and economics. For this purpose, each term addresses a specific topic in usually five public lectures of international guest speakers and additional work in an accompanying seminar.It is worth noting that this study program is fully financed by tuition fees of local students; thus, first of all, we wish to thank our students for making these events possible. In this vein, we also want to thank our student assistants Julia De Gregorio and Julian Rochlitz for their excellent support in organising the series as well as valuable comments on earlier drafts of the introductory chapter. A special thanks is also due to Alexandra Kaiser for her assistance with the figures in this book and for designing the web page and further announcement materials for the study program that not least influenced the design of the cover of the book. Our team assistant Theresia | ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIES AND SPACESNeubauer deserves special appreciation for her great care and patience in processing all administrative tasks.Our utmost gratitude goes, of course, to the distinguished colleagues that accepted our invitation to present and discuss selected parts of their contemporary work in course of the series; they were not deterred by the efforts to travel to wintery snowy Eichstätt, in some cases (such as in the case of Roger Lee who did the whole trip from London by train) indeed a weary journey. By dint of their insightful reflections and rich illustrations of how alternatives are performed at various scales and spaces, they offered all participants in the program, students and colleagues, a great opportunity to delve deeper into the highly relevant, challenging and exciting project to interrogate and practice alternatives in relation to and beyond economic mainstream. We hope that this volume contributes to carrying this project a little further. Hans-Martin Zademach and Sebastian Hillebrand Eichstätt, March 201...

The green economy and post‐growth regimes: opportunities and challenges for economic geography

“…Even so, it is clear that there is no shortage of perspectives or research themes. Although spatial research has shown increasing interest in green businesses, green innovation and local and regional sustainability strategies, more fundamental questions about the underlying mechanisms and general framework conditions of prevailing economic systems have remained more neglected and sustained dialogue between economic geographers and postgrowth scholars in the décroissance community and elsewhere has yet to emerge (for a rare example, see Zademach and Hillebrand 2013).…”

Everyday antagonisms: Organising economic practices in Mercado Bonpland, Buenos Aires

“…There is a large literature within the geographical disciplines on attempts to create a more equitable world through alternative economics (see, for instance, Fuller et al, 2010;Jonas, 2014;Lee et al, 2003;Wills, and Lee, 2014;Zademach and Hillebrand, 2014). Writers have focused on the diversity of community economies (Cornwell, 2012;Taylor, 2014), and on the social relations (Poirier, 2014) and forms of solidarity (Arampatzi, 2018;Miller, 2006;Safri, 2015) fostered by 'more-than-capitalist' or 'post-capitalist' economies (Albert, 2003;Chatterton and Pusey, 2019).…”

Diverse alternatives: empirical evidence from German-speaking scholarship

“…Although the authors use the term "alternative economies" themselves (Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2010), this notion is possibly broader and less conceptualised than the diverse economies approach. Maybe for want of a better term, it seems to be increasingly used by a wider range of economic geography scholars (Zademach and Hillebrand 2013) as an umbrella term for a variety of activities explicitly or implicitly dissenting with current forms of capitalist production. These alternatives encompass social enterprises as well as different articulations of the solidarity economy and community-supported endeavours, e.g.…”