An important part of imagining new economies is the recognition that capitalism is just one part of our global economic relationships, and thus not an inescapable fate. The economists J.K. Gibson-Graham argue that the economy cannot be portrayed as a universal, singular way of organizing, but as a network of multiple forms of work and spheres of economic activity. Below the surface of our market economy, there is a whole world of economic difference. (1) In their framework for diverse economies, they argue we should expand the concept of what is ‘economic’ to include informal markets, self-provisioning labor, gifting, bartering, and care. (2)

According to the World Bank, the informal sector accounts for more than 70 percent of total employment—and nearly one-third of GDP—in low- and middle-income countries. (3)

Contrary to what the dominant capitalist narrative would make us believe, these non-capitalist economic practices are not marginal; in many places in the world they are actually more prevalent, and account for more hours worked and value produced, than the capitalist sector. (4) J.K. Gibson-Graham highlight the immense value of non-capitalist economic activities to people’s daily lives, and show how ordinary people, particularly women, are transforming politics and economies on a daily basis. These informal community economies create alternative ways of living together, as they poetically state, it creates “a world with an ever-replenishing sense of room to move, air to breathe, and space and time to act.” (5)

(1) J.K. Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (as We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 3.  

(2) J.K. Gibson-Graham, Postcapitalist Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006)

(3) Franziska Ohnsorge and Shu Yu, eds. The Long Shadow of Informality: Challenges and Policies. Advance Edition. World Bank, 2021. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO

(4) Gerda Roelvink, Gerda, ed. Making Other Worlds Possible: Performing Diverse Economies  (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015)

(5) J.K. Gibson-Graham, Postcapitalist Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), xxxiii.