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11 - Emplacing Sustainability in a Post-Capitalist World

from Part II - The Economy and Environmental Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Elizabeth S. Barron
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

The concept of a post-capitalist world implies a world after capitalism, but does not suggest a structure for economic negotiations. Rather than waiting for the fall of capitalism, community economies, as theorized by J.K. Gibson-Graham, suggests that economic exchange encompasses a wide array of activities, places, and engagements, and identifies capitalism as only one of many forms of economy. Following that logic, this chapter is based on a particular understanding of post-capitalism as a series of strategies for socio-economic-ecological negotiations. These strategies engage a politics of language, the subject, and collective action. I consider the question: what does sustainability look like in a post-capitalist world? In answer, I consider how these post-capitalist strategies can enhance the concept of emplaced sustainability. The emplacement framework fosters the concept of emplaced sustainability by relating existing case studies to each other in novel ways. This seemingly simple act furthers a politics of language, which supports the remaking of subjects through interdisciplinary scholarship and can also be extended to collective actions and transdiciplinary engagement.

Keywords

placesustainabilitycommunity economiespost-capitalism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 176 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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