Another economy calls for another perspective

Economics makes sense of the economy. Another economy that may or may not come about in response to the Corona crisis will require another sense making. This article provides a possible alternative perspective, a value-based approach. It includes a model with five spheres that encourages a visualization and conceptualization of the economy beyond the market and governmental spheres that dominate the standard economic perspective. By including social and cultural spheres as well as the sphere of the oikos (home) we are encouraged to think of social arrangements, relationships and other “shared goods,” sense making, culture and other qualities of living. The exploration of another perspective includes two concrete proposals for alternative institutions to deal with problematic debts and creating work for people with limitations.

Farewell to the University (without Nostalgia); or, Thoughts on the Relation between the University and the Common

This article argues for a university that would be neither private nor public but common. After providing a definition of the common, this article proposes to counter the current and ongoing processes of privatization and corporatization of the (public) university through a lopsided double-pronged strategy: to work and struggle at once within and against the university as well as outside and beyond the university (where the outside and the beyond consist of alternative institutions for the production at once of common knowledge and of the knowledge of the common); further, more emphasis should be put on the outside and the beyond rather than on the within and against.

The Central Asian States

This chapter argues that with the partial exception of Kazakhstan, by mutual agreement, both European gatekeepers and actors in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union have decided that these states are not in any meaningful way part of Europe, and that no aspect of Europeanization (political, security, or cultural-civilizational) is appropriate for them. Kazakhstan has made some effort to position itself as a “truly Eurasian” state that is a bridge between Europe and Asia but is firmly tied to Russia’s Euro-alternative institutions. None of the other Central Asian states has shown any interest in identifying as European in any way. The chapter explores the various forms of political authoritarianism, security strategy, and national identity that the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) have pursued instead of a policy of Europeanization. In the absence of a real European presence, Russia’s and China’s roles and ambitions in the region are also discussed.

Insurgent Universality

Insurgent Universality presents an intervention in current discussions on universalism, democracy, and property. It investigates other trajectories besides traditional ones of modernity and traces an alternative legacy for contemporary movements. This legacy exceeds the familiar juridical horizon of citizenship, individual rights, and the state by revisiting questions relating to power, democratic practices, and the modern conception of private property. Insurgent Universality investigates and displays alternative trajectories of modernity that have been repressed, hindered, and forgotten. These trajectories are not only embodiments of a radical hope and a new conception of universality that arose from insurgencies from below; they also alert us to possibilities in our present that have been underestimated or overlooked. Eventually, they show us alternative institutions by which to reshape our present. These experimental democratic practices and institutions are based on the pluralism of authorities instead of the monopoly power of the state. However, such an inquiry resists the utopian urge to clear the tables. Instead, the book examines more closely, and with a fresh perspective, those aspects of our intellectual inheritance that we have allowed to remain in the darkness. By doing this, Insurgent Universality aims to “decolonize” European history, offering an image of Europe that is not monolithic but, rather, composed of many layers and paths that have been repressed or forgotten. The aim of the book is to rebuild those roads not taken and bridge them with non-European trajectories and political experiments.