Towards a post-Occupy world

Progress in Human Geography

This paper aims to further a geographical agenda through the concept of postcapitalism. We outline its contours across three terrains of transformation between capitalism and postcapitalism: creating commons against enclosure, socially useful production that counters commodification, and joyful doing that negates alienated work. Secondly, we explore how postcapitalism is mobilised with different inflections through three contemporary debates: community economies, post-work and autonomous perspectives. We then illuminate how one area of social practice (platform cooperatives) resonates with postcapitalist terrains and debates. We conclude by exploring the, as yet unclear and partially formed, social and spatial landscape of postcapitalism.

This essay is an attempt to explore what it might be like to live in a post-capitalist age. Much as men like Seneca in his time agreed that 'things must change' if society is to renew itself, we are faced with the same question today. The essay looks at ways to deal with the socio-economic impasse that now predominates, and how a re-examination of ideas such as 'transhumanism' and 'inhumanism,' as expressed by poets such as Robinson Jeffers, might help us to come to terms with new thought constructs to deal with a post-capitalist condition. Hopefully the essay will stimulate readers into a response that accepts the need to see capitalism itself as a historical moment in the life of peoples.

2012

"Re-reading the economic landscape of the western world as a largely noncapitalist landscape composed of economic plurality, this paper demonstrates how economic relations in contemporary western society are often embedded in noncommodified practices such as mutual aid, reciprocity, co-operation and inclusion. By highlighting how the long-overlooked lived practices in the contemporary world of production, consumption and exchange are heavily grounded in the very types and essences of non-capitalist economic relations that have long been proposed by anarchistic visions of employment and organization, this paper displays that such visions are far from utopian: they are embedded firmly in the present. Through focusing on the pervasive nature of heterodox economic spaces in the UK in particular, some ideas about how to develop an anarchist future of work and organization will be proposed. The outcome is to begin to engage in the demonstrative construction of a future based on mutualism and autonomous modes of organization and representation."

Open Cultural Studies, 2020

The article sets out the thesis that the social-ontological account based on the form of life concept can be used to analytically and normatively reflect alternative economies and their attempt to overcome capitalistic structures. To develop the thesis, I provide conceptual work on the "economic form of life", pointing at its plasticity due to the general substitutability of economic practices. Against this background, I argue that Capitalism makes use of this plasticity to create a fully commodified, radical contingent form of life. Actors of alternative economies can wake up of from this dream world of Capitalism by using the substitutability of economic practices to deconstruct the capitalist form of life. The two most important practices for doing so are the practices of "in-sourcing" and "solidary out-sourcing". They also reveal the normative kernel of conviviality, namely to seek to do justice to the economicity of human life. The paper ends with locating the presented form-of-life-account within the strand of literature on alternative economies.

Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, 2019

Karl Marx @ 200: Debating Capitalism & Perspectives for the Future of Radical Theory , 2018

The goal of this article is twofold. First, to illustrate how in the last decade a growing number of critical and Marxist thinkers committed to discussing and developing theories of change have started to broaden their focus by including social movements and grassroots initiatives that are " interstitial " , i.e. initiatives that are developing within capitalism and are striving to prefigure a post-capitalist society in the here and now without engaging in contentious, violent and revolutionary actions and activities. To achieve this, I mainly focus on the work of four authors: Erik Olin Wright, John Holloway, Ana C. Dinerstein, and Luke Martell. The second goal of this article is to understand why these interstitial movements are getting so much attention from critical scholars and to argue that the time is ripe for establishing a theory of (and for) prefigurative social movements. The article closes with some brief reflections on the future of radical thinking that includes an invitation, directed mostly at the young generation of critical and Marxist scholars, to begin a dialogue with theories of change developed within other disciplines , to engage with activists, and to experiment with participatory methods and techniques.

interventions, 2003

Several theorists claim that post capitalism is in sight. The digital revolution, the new access to information and the emerging sharing economy impact our lives, communities and values. Not least, our relationship to art. No matter if we label it post capitalism or not, there's no doubt that the economy and culture are going through tremendous changes. What does it do with the perception and potential of art? Can the current changes make new grounds for how we engage with and value art? Can art be a societal instigator, and make way for alternative experiences and values?