Some Survival Strategies of Communal Economic Projects
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The aim of this roundtable is to look at entities variously designated as social solidarity economy/grasroots innovations for sustainability/heterodox economic spaces/eco-social enterprises/community economies, etc., and discuss ways in which they can be supported, or in which they already support themselves and each other, in order to survive in an unforgiving globalised environment, even to thrive and multiply without losing their ethos. They include e.g. community-supported- agriculture, comunity gardens and other local food projects, savings and credit co-operatives, co-operative publishers, local currencies, occupied factories, community schools, some housing co-ops and co-housing projects, community and re-use centers, non-profit shops, renewable energy co-operatives, community land trusts, etc. They can also include traditional or innovated communal reciprocity and subsistence projects, where communal land stewardship (access to commons) is crucial. Such community economies have been shown to have important environmental dimensions not only explicitly thanks to their activities but also implicitly thanks to their structure and governance which de-emphasise growth, profit and intensification of production and prioritise democratic decision-making and long-term community and ecosystem interests. By emphasising common ownership and equitable asset distribution, such enterprises also address ownership and gender power imbalances in local communites. |
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