Consensus decision-making as a research method for generative justice: empirical practices from a money-less economy in Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

This article examines how consensus decision-making can be used as a method in creating spaces for generative justice. Based on empirical research in a moneyless economy in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, the project called El Cambalache has created its own exchange value where everything in the economy shares equal value. The article is a praxiography of consensus decision-making as research method.

Between paranoia and possibility: Diverse economies and the decolonial imperative

“…Specifically, Naylor (2019) uses decolonial theory to dismantle diverse economic exchanges through fair trade markets, arguing that the way fair trade is mobilised in Chiapas is harnessed and put to work as a site of resistance as well as economic activity. Araujo (2016aAraujo ( , 2016bAraujo ( , 2018 applies decolonial theory as part of a participatory effort to create and maintain a moneyless economy in Chiapas and argues that how we build knowledge about the benefits of economic exchange can stand outside of Western episteme. Both authors argue that decolonising knowledge production provides new avenues for thinking about how to live well in places and circumstances that are actively exclusionary, oppressive, and/or grounded in struggle.…”

“…Recent works, including chapters in The Handbook – especially those that deal with colonial legacies or are written from the “majority world” (see Gibson‐Graham & Dombroski, 2020, p. 4) – provide examples of approaches that engage in reparative critique, either attempting to strike a balance or attend to the geopolitics of knowledge production by viewing the performative practices of building liveable worlds through multiple lenses (Araujo, 2016, 2018; Chlala, 2020; Naylor, 2019; Nicolosi, 2020; Sarmiento, 2017; Schmid & Smith, 2020; Sweet, 2016; Turker & Murphy, 2019). What is notable about much of this work is the reliance on bringing diverse economies into conversation with other strands of critical thought.…”

“…Schmid and Smith (2020) draw on practice‐theory to bring in discussions of power, politics, and scale to understand the tensions in community‐driven transformation. Finally, Naylor (2019) and Araujo (2016, 2018) put diverse economies in conversation with decolonial theory to address the geopolitics of knowledge production as they relate to indigenous livelihoods and collective work in Mexico. Specifically, Naylor (2019) uses decolonial theory to dismantle diverse economic exchanges through fair trade markets, arguing that the way fair trade is mobilised in Chiapas is harnessed and put to work as a site of resistance as well as economic activity.…”

“…Some of these chapters take up race explicitly (Dombroski) and others make mention that race needs to be addressed. There is already work underway that is taking up issues of race and power in diverse economies (see Araujo, 2016, 2018; Bledsoe et al, 2019; Naylor, 2019, 2020). These approaches appear to find a balance between paranoia and possibility.…”

Moneyless economics and non-hierarchical exchange values in Chiapas, Mexico

“…For full citations of these pieces see the reference section underAraujo, 2015Araujo, , 2016Araujo, , 2016b for examples. The doctoral dissertation will be published in December 2017.…”