Take Back the Economy
An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities
J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy
Take Back the Economy dismantles the idea that the economy is separate from us and best comprehended by experts, demonstrating that the economy is the outcome of the decisions and efforts we make every day. Full of exercises and inspiring examples from around the world, it shows how people can implement small-scale changes in their own lives to create ethical economies.
Take Back the Economy is the single most farsighted and practical work enlightening us on the path to a steady transition toward a genuine postcapitalist world. It is based on the presupposition that reorienting the economy means much more than the control of production—it means reinventing ourselves, our communities, and our world in profound ways. Out of this act of ‘reframing’ there emerges a novel understanding of work, enterprise, market, property, even finance. In this wonderful new work in the tradition of Gibson-Graham, students, activists, movements, and communities will find a toolkit for ethical and effective action any time, any place.
Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
In the wake of economic crisis on a global scale, more and more people are reconsidering their role in the economy and wondering what they can do to make it work better for humanity and the planet. In this innovative book, J. K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy contribute complex understandings of economics in practical terms: what can we do right now, in our own communities, to make a difference?
Full of exercises, thinking tools, and inspiring examples from around the world, Take Back the Economy shows how people can implement small-scale changes in their own lives to create ethical economies. There is no manifesto here, no one prescribed model; rather, readers are encouraged and taught how to take back the economy in ways appropriate for their own communities and context, using what they already have at hand.
Take Back the Economy dismantles the idea that the economy is separate from us and best comprehended by experts. Instead, the authors demonstrate that the economy is the outcome of the decisions and efforts we make every day. The economy is thus reframed as a space of ethical action—something we can shape and alter according to what is best for the well-being of people and the planet. The book explores what people are already doing to build ethical economies, presenting these deeds as mutual concerns: What is necessary for survival, and what do we do with the surplus produced beyond what will fulfill basic needs? What do we consume, and how do we preserve and replenish the commons—those resources that can be shared to maintain all? And finally, how can we invest in a future worth living in?
Suitable for activists and students alike, Take Back the Economy will be of interest to anyone seeking a more just, sustainable, and equitable world.
$19.95 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-7607-1
$60.00 cloth ISBN 978-0-8166-7606-4
264 pages, 82 b&w photos, 7 x 9, May 2013
J. K. Gibson-Graham is the pen name of the economic geographers Professor Katherine Gibson from the University of Western Sydney and the late Professor Julie Graham from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. J. K. Gibson-Graham’s earlier books include A Postcapitalist Politics (Minnesota, 2006), The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (Minnesota, 2006), and the edited collections Class and Its Others (Minnesota, 2000) and Re/presenting Class: Essays in Postmodern Marxism.
Jenny Cameron is associate professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Stephen Healy is assistant professor of economic geography at Worcester State University.
Take Back the Economy is the single most farsighted and practical work enlightening us on the path to a steady transition toward a genuine postcapitalist world. It is based on the presupposition that reorienting the economy means much more than the control of production—it means reinventing ourselves, our communities, and our world in profound ways. Out of this act of ‘reframing’ there emerges a novel understanding of work, enterprise, market, property, even finance. In this wonderful new work in the tradition of Gibson-Graham, students, activists, movements, and communities will find a toolkit for ethical and effective action any time, any place.
Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Take Back the Economy is a valuable, engaged accessible and very clear addition to the Community Economics Collective oeuvre, and I hope it will be read widely and--more importantly--change the world.
Antipode
Readable, practical, radical.
Sociology
A most exquisitely conducted study into the not-for-profit or other side of organisations. It impressively shows that ‘another world’ is not only possible but already here.
Organization
Contents
Acknowledgments
Take Back the Economy: Why Now?
1. Reframing the Economy, Reframing Ourselves
2. Take Back Work: Surviving Well
3. Take Back Business: Distributing Surplus
4. Take Back the Market: Encountering Others
5. Take Back Property: Commoning
6. Take Back Finance: Investing in Futures
Any Time, Any Place . . .
Notes
Index
Take Back the Economy on Facebook
Teaching materials from the authors: Teaching Take Back the Economy in Hong Kong
-------
UMP blog - Not Capitalism 2.0 or even 3.0, but a whole new operating system
The task of imagining and enacting a new economy is one that is being taken up by a growing number of people around the world, as our new book Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities demonstrates. Yet it is nevertheless remarkable when one so clearly a member of the 1% calls for a new economic system.
But that is exactly what Peter Buffet, son of Warren, one of the world’s richest men, has done in a recent New York Times opinion piece The Charitable-Industrial Complex.
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
Taking back the economy in Antipode
Take Back Work: Managing the Work-Life Balance
Environment and Planning D: An interview on Take Back the Economy
Taking back the economy in Antipode
Review of TAKE BACK THE ECONOMY by J. K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy.
Take Back Work: Managing the Work-Life Balance
UTNE Reader publishes an excerpt of TAKE BACK THE ECONOMY by J. K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy.
Environment and Planning D: An interview on Take Back the Economy
With Katherine Gibson, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy.
Pursuing happiness: it’s mostly a matter of surviving well together
From the authors of TAKE BACK THE ECONOMY.
Antipode offering free virtual issue to celebrate Katherine Gibson lecture