Development Studies (Books)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/24346
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Item Co-Operatives in South Africa: Advancing Solidarity Economy Pathways from Below(University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019) Satgar, Vishwas.Co-operatives in post-apartheid South Africa have featured in the Reconstruction and Development Programme, legislation, vertical and horizontal state policy and various discourses from Black Economic Empowerment, ‘two economies’ and ‘radical economic transformation’. In practice, the big push by government through quantitative growth, seed capital and top-down movement building has not yielded viable, member-driven and values-centred co-operatives leading systemic change. Government looks to the experience of Afrikaner nationalism for keys to success, while some co-operative development programmes are breaking new ground in co-operative banking and community public works programmes. Yet, government co-operative pathways are facing serious limits. At the same time, solidarity economy practitioners have been fostering pathways from below, both actual and potential, within various co-operative experiences. Solidarity economy practice is not seeking government validation nor demanding recognition through adoption. Instead, solidarity economy forces are seeking to work with, against and beyond the state to build institutionalised and decolonised solidarity relations in a society increasingly grounded in market values of individualism, competition and greed. This volume builds on a previous collection, The Solidarity Economy Alternative: Emerging Theory and Practice (2014), and inaugurates a debate between leading government co-operative development practitioners and its critics, many of whom are working to advance bottom-up solidarity economy pathways.Item The Solidarity Economy Alternative: Emerging Theory and Practice(University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2014) Satgar, Vishwas.Our contemporary world is plagued by a deep crisis that threatens the survival of our species and the planet. In the midst of this dire situation, we are being misled to believe by transnational corporations, governments, mainstream media networks and spin doctors that neoliberal capitalism has all the answers and can overcome any crisis. But can more of the same and a blind faith in capitalism save our world? Many are not convinced and there is a crucial awakening taking place. The rise of transnational activism, the World Social Forum, the Arab Spring, Occupy, the Climate Justice Movement and a post-neoliberal left affirm the need for alternatives to global neoliberal capitalism. A crucial idea and practice emerging from this ferment is the solidarity economy alternative. This book brings together contributions from leading thinkers and practitioners supporting the solidarity economy alternative in South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States. For the first time there is an attempt to clarify, rather than codify, meanings of the solidarity economy, emphasise crucial theoretical concepts at work in the emergent solidarity economy, and highlight situated movement-building experiences and ways in which the anti-capitalist logic of the solidarity economy can be constituted from below. This book is for anyone concerned about democracy, transformative politics and emancipatory utopian alternatives.