A Postcapitalist Politics of Dwelling: Ecological Humanities and Community Economies in Conversation

Abstract

n this essay we engage with perhaps the most pressing question of our time— how do we live together with human and non-human others? This question has been addressed by eco-feminists, and most recently by Val Plumwood, in her essay titled “Shadow places and the Politics of Dwelling” in which she asks “what it would mean to acknowledge and honour all the places that support you…from spiritual to economic, and to honour not just this more fully-conceived ‘own place’ but the places of others too” (7). The question has also been taken up by feminist economic geographer J.K. Gibson- Graham in her thinking about ethical economic practices of coexistence that recognize, safeguard and constitute the commonality of being. Gibson-Graham’s notion of community economies highlights and theorizes the interdependence embodied in decisions about the production, appropriation, distribution and consumption of both social surplus and a commons. Both feminist eco-humanities scholars and feminist economic geographers are engaging with an ethics of becoming that works towards a relational understanding of economic life. This essay is an exploration of points of connection between these parallel research programmes. Drawing on examples elaborated by eco-humanities scholars, we consider how the practice of economic life might