Consciousness and Alternatives to Capitalism

Research Objectives

Forms of solidarity economy built on the principles and values of cooperation, equality, self-determination and democracy, exist and are taking shape in many parts of the world. These forms include household economies, barter economies, collective economies including cooperatives, worker-controlled economies, subsistence market economies, community budgeting, participatory budgeting, community-based local currency exchange systems, and ethical trading, among others. Labour organizations have also provided spaces for building capacities in the struggle to defy capitalism.

General: Provide visibility or social recognition of non-capitalist economic identities, of people being actively involved in non-capitalist practices, to motivate the pursuit of similar undertakings

• provide an overview of recent discourses on possible alternatives to neoliberal globalization and capitalism
• analyze how select case studies have become or provided spaces for the development of (counter) consciousness & capacities for non‐capitalist initiatives
• link these cases with recent discourses on alternatives

Linking theoretical debates with social experiments and initiatives

• How do people embark on such alternatives within a system that in many ways has colonized even people’s imagination?
• What are the motivations and transformative processes involved in such initiatives?
• What insights do these initiatives offer to the significant amount of literature on visioning another world?