Making Other Worlds Possible

"What makes the book so special is that each of authors know the communities they speak of and they write with real passion."—Antipode

"Making Other Worlds Possible is an inspiring collection, reinforcing the importance of a diverse economies of perspective in search for “just sustainabilities” and urging us to (continue) think(ing) about processes of ethical decision-making, performativity, subjectivation, politics, the (perceived) divide between academia and activism and much more."—Local Environment

There is no doubt that “economy” is a keyword in contemporary life, yet what constitutes economy is increasingly contested terrain. Interested in building “other worlds,” J. K. Gibson-Graham have argued that the economy is not only diverse but also open to experimentations that foreground the well-being of humans and nonhumans alike. Making Other Worlds Possible brings together in one volume a compelling range of projects inspired by the diverse economies research agenda pioneered by Gibson-Graham.

This collection offers perspectives from a wide variety of prominent scholars that put diverse economies into conversation with other contemporary projects that reconfigure the economy as performative. Here, Robert Snyder and Kevin St. Martin explore the emergence of community-supported fisheries; Elizabeth S. Barron documents how active engagements between people, plants, and fungi in the United States and Scotland are examples of highly productive diverse economic practices; and Michel Callon investigates how alternative forms of market organization and practices can be designed and implemented.
Firmly establishing diverse economies as a field of research, Making Other Worlds Possible outlines an array of ways scholars are enacting economies differently that privilege ethical negotiation and a politics of possibility. Ultimately, this book contributes to the making of economies that put people and the environment at the forefront of economic decision making.

Contributors: Elizabeth S. Barron, U of Wisconsin–Oshkosh; Amanda Cahill; Michel Callon, École des mines de Paris; Jenny Cameron, U of Newcastle, Australia; Stephen Healy, Worcester State U; Yahya M. Madra, Bogazici U; Deirdre McKay, Keele U; Sarah A. Moore, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Ceren Ŏzselçuk, Bogazici U; Marianna Pavlovskaya, Hunter College, CUNY; Paul Robbins, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Maliha Safri, Drew U; Robert Snyder, Island Institute; Karen Werner, Goddard College.

Gerda Roelvink is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at the University of Western Sydney.

Kevin St. Martin is associate professor of geography at Rutgers University. 

J. K. Gibson-Graham is the pen name of Katherine Gibson and the late Julie Graham, feminist political economists and economic geographers based at the University of Western Sydney and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, respectively.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: An Economic Politics for Our Times
Kevin St. Martin, Gerda Roelvink, and J. K. Gibson-Graham
1. A Fishery for the Future: The Midcoast Fishermen’s Association and the Work of Economic Being-in-Common
Robert Snyder and Kevin St. Martin
2. Enterprise Innovation and Economic Diversity in Community Supported Agriculture: Sustaining the Agricultural Commons
Jenny Cameron
3. Performing Economies of Care in New England Time Bank and Buddhist Community
Karen Werner
4. Biofuels, Ex-felons, and Empower, a Worker-Owned Cooperative: Performing Enterprises Differently
Stephen Healy
5. Creating Spaces for Communism: Postcapitalist Desire in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Western Massachusetts
Yahya M. Madra and Ceren Özselçuk
6. Nature’s Diverse Economies: Reading Political Ecology for Economic Difference
Sarah A. Moore and Paul Robbins
7. Situating Wild Product Gathering in a Diverse Economy: Negotiating Ethical Interactions with Natural Resources
Elizabeth S. Barron
8. Diverse Economies, Ecologies, and Ethics: Rethinking Rural Transformation in the Philippines
Katherine Gibson, Amanda Cahill, and Deirdre McKay
9. Performing Posthumanist Economies in the Anthropocene
Gerda Roelvink
10. International Migration and the Global Household: Performing Diverse Economies on the World Stage
Maliha Safri and Julie Graham
11. Post-Soviet Welfare and Multiple Economies of Households in Moscow
Marianna Pavlovskaya
12. The Politics of Mapping Solidarity Economies and Diverse Economies in Brazil and the Northeastern United States
Maliha Safri
13. How to Design Alternative Markets: The Case of Genetically Modified/Non–Genetically Modified Coexistence
Michel Callon
Contributors
Index