Alternative Economic Spaces
- Andrew Leyshon - University of Nottingham, UK
- Roger Lee - Queen Mary, University of London, UK
- Colin C Williams - University of Sheffield, UK
In the context of problems in the "new economy" - from dot.com start-ups, high-technology, and telecoms - Alternative Economic Spaces presents a critical evaluation of alternatives to the global economic mainstream. It focuses on the emergence of alternative economic geographies within developed economies and analyzes the emergence of alternative economic practices within industrialized countries. These include the creation of institutions like Local Exchange and Trading Systems, Credit Unions, and other social economy initiatives; and the development of alternative practices from informal work to the invention of consumption sites that act as alternatives to the monoply of the `big-box', multi-chain retail outlets.
Alternative Economic Spaces is a reconsideration of what is meant by the `economic' in economic geography; its objective is to bring together some of the ways in which this is being undertaken. The volume shows how the `economic' is being rethought in economic geography by detailing new economic geographies as they are emerging in practice.
`A hopeful but nonetheless hard-hitting analysis of alternative economic spaces proliferating in the belly of the capitalist beast. In this book Leyshon, Lee and Williams convene fascinating studies of exchange, enterprise, credit and community. They invite us onto a new and promising discursive terrain where we can analyze, criticize and above all recognize actually existing economies of diversity in the wealthy countries of the West' - J K Gibson-Graham, Australian National University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"An excellent, timely, and provocative book—a must-read for students of economic and social geography. This book examines a wide range of alternative economic spaces from retail and finance to life style. All of the chapters are, without exception, well written, and many are based on detailed empirical research, often using innovative comparative case studies along with other methods."
"An excellent text for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in economic geography or the other social sciences."