Everyday antagonisms: Organising economic practices in Mercado Bonpland, Buenos Aires

Abstract

In 2001, Argentina experienced a profound social political and economic crisis. In response, a broad and diverse social and economic movement was created, involving autonomous politics, horizontal organisation, autogestion, neighbourhood assemblies and state rupture. The creation of alternative economic systems played an important role in this challenge to capitalist hegemony, producing a different and more humanising kind of economics focused on the provision of opportunities for more stable, sustainable and dignified production. This paper uses an innovative theoretical approach, drawing on both Marxism and diverse economy literature, to explore data collected during empirical research between 2013 and 2016 into a solidarity retail market in Buenos Aires, the Mercado de Economía Solidaria Bonpland. It argues that such interventions in the interstices of capitalism offer a radical and alternative solution through a politics of everyday antagonism. By insisting on economic plurality in the present via a series of oppositions and compromises, the Mercado both drew attention to the failings of capitalism, and created a genuine and visible social and economic alternative.