Diverse economic practices: Logics and Change

The project at a glance

Start date:

04 Jan 2015
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

Uni
Principal Investigator(s):

Christian SCHULZ

About

Economies are inherently diverse (Lee 2006). In opposition to monistic representations of “the economy” and capitalocentric narratives, a reading for difference reveals economies as sites of multiple practices, values and ethics (Gibson-Graham 2006, North 2015, Peck 2013). Frequently however, a priority of representations and discourses engenders de-materialized accounts. A praxeological approach takes “doings and sayings” into account and allows for a stronger focus on (im)possibilities of actions as well as on stability & change – without resorting to binary thinking of micro- and macroperspectives (Schatzki 2016). Looking at ‘non-capitalist’, and small-scale ‘capitalist’ ventures in Stuttgart (Germany), this thesis attempts to carve out the diverse logics underlying economic practices, as well as their interrelatedness. In addition, the question is raised, what role the interdependencies between different ventures, projects and actors play in dealing with diverse (institutional) logics. Perspectivally, the thesis aims to contribute to a growing discourse on the transition to more socially and environmentally just economies.