What People are Saying

 

Arturo Escobar, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Take Back the Economy is the single most farsighted and practical work enlightening us on the path to a steady transition towards 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.

 

Massimo De Angelis, University of East London, UK

In short, Take Back the Economy is a must read for those who seek to change the world bottom up.

 

Kendra Strauss, Simon Fraser University, Canada

In Take Back the Economy a key focus is on the control that we can exert over ‘the economy’ rather than the control it exerts over us. This focus is like looking through a microscope; decisions, actions and processes that seem too small to matter are subjected to a lens that reveals action and agency within broader forces that seem to operate at a level above the everyday. It makes an important contribution to the toolkit of those seeking to confront economic orthodoxy.

 

Jeff Popke, Geography, East Carolina University, USA

Readers familiar with the work of J.K. Gibson-Graham and the wider Community Economies Collective will know already that their writings and action research projects have made important contributions to the development of what we might call an ‘economic ethics.’ This latest book is no exception, announcing its mission as “taking back the economy through ethical action.” This focus on action, signaled right away by the imperative mood of the book’s title, gives Take Back the Economy a somewhat different ethical tone than its predecessor. If A Postcapitalist Politics was oriented around an ethics of thinking, the project of taking back the economy demands practical, ethical action, the “nitty gritty of creating alternative economies.” This present work thus not only inventories and documents diverse economies (although the book does do quite a bit of this) but also constitutes them, by proliferating resources for bringing them into being. In this sense, the book is generative and performative, a project aimed at creating new economic agencies and identities.

 

Suzanne Bergeron, Women’s Studies and Social Sciences, University of Michigan Dearborn

I have been thumbing through Take Back the Economy all afternoon, and find it to be an engaging, inspiring work that I can’t recommend highly enough. The book reframes the economy as a site of ethical action, not expert intervention. Not only does it provide a new way of thinking about the economy and our actions within it, it also explores what people are already doing to build ethical economies. The book is accessible and suitable for activists and academics alike.

 

Steffen Böhm, University of Essex, UK

The premise and important message of this book is that it is within our grasp and interest that we don’t let ‘them’ dictate to ‘us’ what the economy and business are about. We don’t have to wait for a revolution. Capitalism is not an all-encompassing system that dominates everybody and everything on this planet. Instead, it has many holes, allowing alternative economic practices to exist alongside capitalist interests. The very practical task of Take Back the Economy is to give airtime to such ‘alternatives’.