Open Collections

An ethnography of possibility : finding and forging 'the otherwise' in two Winnipeg-based alternative economic development communities

University of British Columbia

Theoretically driven by the work of J.-K. Gibson-Graham and postcapitalist politics, the thesis draws on ethnographic research in two community organizations to explore what is possible to think and imagine in the making and everyday of two community economies. The first half of the thesis examines possibly / knowledge, or the use and impact of ideas about economy and related concepts such as rent, enterprise and social enterprise, to study how theoretical practices shape community endeavors. Chapters examine the practice of capitalocentric and “otherwise” economic ideas. The second half of the thesis examines possibility / becoming, or the moment of becoming and the processes leading up to such becoming, to study, in one case, the social relations of a group and the role of consensus-based decision making and the impact of fantasies about cooperatives and cooperation; and in the other case, the impact of ideas about the role and roll-out of policy within the training program and who shapes an organization’s ability to intervene in the local labour market.

Text

2015-03-11

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/52346

Geography

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/