Extra-capitalist impulses in the midst of the crisis: perspectives and positions outside of capitalism

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the current special issue, Extra-capitalist impulses in the midst of the crisis. Those seeking alternatives to capitalism, and egalitarian social change more generally, face a chronic undecidability. In this context, the special issue considers episodes of what we term, extra-capitalism. By this, we mean those instances, examples, strategies, tactics, experiments, programmes, moments, ruptures and revolutions that have sought to find a way either to challenge or to move outside of capitalism. The article highlights three key dimensions of difference that tend to face those seeking alternatives to capitalism: on the question of scale; regarding the attitude towards institutions of authority, and especially the state; and over the mode of internal organization. Each of the articles of the special issue connect with these questions, and the way in which we might learn from episodes of extra-capitalism, both historically and in the present.

KEYWORDS:

• Capitalism
• anti-capitalism
• solidarity
• crisis
• resistance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This special issue is edited by David J. Bailey and Phoebe V. Moore. It arises from the Moving Beyond Capitalism stream of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) Conference which took place in Lisbon in 2016. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments on each of the papers in the special issue; and also to Barry Gills for supporting the project throughout.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David J. Bailey

David J. Bailey is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on critical political economy and the politics of left parties and protest movements. He recently co-authored the book, Beyond Defeat and Austerity: Disrupting (the Critical Political Economy of) Neoliberal Europe (Routledge), and has also published articles in British Politics, Comparative European Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, and Socio-Economic Review.