Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities

Acknowledgments

ix acknowledgments Taking back the economy is not a task for a loner. The job calls for concerted action by many. Thankfully we know that there are already many on the job. This book could not have been written without them. In the late 1990s Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson, writing as the authorial voice J. K. Gibson-Graham, suggested, in The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It), that we didn’t need to wait for the revolution; we could smash capitalism by working at home in our spare time. It wasn’t till a decade later, with diverse movements across the globe chanting cries of “Other Economies Are Possible!” and “Life after Capitalism,” that our cheeky feminist proposition was finally old news. In A Postcapitalist Politics, J.K. laid out a vision of a community economy as a space of ethical negotiation and decision making. Much of the thinking for this book was generated in the context of community-based action research projects conducted with Jenny Cameron in Australia and Stephen Healy in the United States. Over the decades the four of us have been connecting and plotting around kitchen tables, at community meetings, in university lecture halls, and via the Internet to take back the economy any way we could. In 2008, with the encouragement of Jason Weidemann from the University of Minnesota Press, we decided to write a manual that would help connect a broad range of economic experimenters, activists, students, and researchers. Working now as an expanded authorial collective, we launched into what we thought was a project of popularizing these ideas. We had no idea that our journey would take us far away from our familiar starting point, out into uncharted territory. During the four years it has taken this book to emerge, it has developed a life of its own under the direction of influences and forces we can only just make out. Multiple collectivities have sustained us aCKNOWLEDGMENTS x with their energy, resources, and creativity. The Community Economies Collective has been a constant source of theoretical nourishment and comradely care. Its web of loving connection surrounded us when Julie Graham died in April 2010, supporting us to proceed with what was at that time a very sketchy manuscript. Julie’s presence lives on in our collective’s memory in countless ways—in our regular discussions, when we ponder the bizarre differences between English and American punctuation codes, and when we have lost the plot and need to channel her clarifying conceptual capacities. All members of this thirty-somestrong international collective have offered feedback, suggestions, and examples that have enriched this work. Our ongoing conversation with Julie is not the only one with someone no longer living who has directed our journey. We would like to acknowledge three inspirational thinkers with whom we have continued to converse since their recent deaths. Val Plumwood has pushed us to engage with the ecological world and to extend ethical thinking to include earth others. Jane Jacobs has led us toward a closer engagement with ecological dynamics. And Eve Sedgwick has continued to whisper “reparative, reparative” in our ears as we have contemplated action and possibility. Our debt to these women is heartfelt, not least because they help us accept that death does not sever our interdependence with others. Some very specific communities and organizations have guided our journey, variously educating us in the work of habit cultivation, popular education, and ethical deliberation. We would like to thank the Cooleyville community; Empower Biodiesel Cooperative Solidarity and Green Economy; Newcastle community gardens; the recovery and twelve-step movements; Latrobe Valley Community Partnering initiatives ; the Town Farm Road hummingbirds; Alliance to Develop Power; Nuestras Raíces; Jagna and Linamon Community Partnering initiatives ; the Te Maiharoa family, especially Ramonda; Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives; the Association for Economic and Social Analysis ; Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement ;theTaitcrowd;andthePicnicPointcockatoocolony,amongmany others. Our institutions have offered us material and collegial support. The University of Western Sydney provided Katherine with generous re- aCKNOWLEDGMENTS xi search support. It funded Julie on an Eminent Research Visitor Fellowship for three months in 2010 and Stephen on a four-month fellowship that took him to Australia for a crucial period. Study leave from the University of Newcastle gave Jenny a concerted block of writing time away from the interruptions of teaching and administration. Worcester State University has supported Stephen’s absences. Above...