Alternative Economies and New Forms of Work

As life conditions become increasingly uncertain across species and regions of the world, Growth no longer seems to be the answer to the betterment of human conditions. In fact, “The Market” itself is no longer a given, and faith in the invisible hand is withering. As a result, governments, corporations, activists, and organizations worldwide are increasingly looking for new ways of imagining, representing, and enacting economic relations and forms of work.

What are the specific conditions that have led to these critiques? What do these critiques share and how do they differ? And what are the challenges and potentials inherent in the economic alternatives and new forms of work that are being proposed across the world?

This course addresses contemporary critiques and alternatives to the so-called “Economy”: the self-regulating, all-encompassing market force that has ruled – and many would say damaged – the world for the past 200 years. It explores a diversity of markets, forms of work and distribution, production and consumption, trade and currencies that exist, and have long existed, throughout the world, but that are today being championed as better and more sustainable paths for the thriving of life on earth. In other words, it explores visions for how to do economy and work differently.

The course begins by addressing the construction of the Economy in the 19^th and 20^th centuries in Europe and the United States. It then moves on to explore contemporary critiques of this specific economic worldview, taking inspiration from corporate and public examples, the global South and North, and majority as well as minority subjects. Most of the course thereby consists in in-depth empirical explorations of the numerous ways in which dominant economic constructions and forms of work are being challenged in practice and theory. The focus will lie on the different challenges and opportunities that these economic visions and visionaries face, including their aspirations and hope for better economic futures.

Specific examples include feminist economies, corporate social responsibility, fairtrade movements, wellbeing economies, community economies, green economies, degrowth economies, Black economies, pirate economies, and regenerative business and leadership, as well as models such as doughnuts, icebergs, and circular visions of design, production, and consumption.

The course is particularly relevant for students specializing in business and organizational anthropology, but also for any student who is interested in heterodox approaches to economies and how these relate to contemporary discourses and tendencies such as sustainability, resilience, diversity, buen vivir, slow living, quiet quitting, wellbeing, etc.