IDS and the Open Society Foundations are working to identify exciting economic alternatives; ways that enterprises, communities and societies are making economic decisions in which ‘ordinary’ people have a real voice.
We envisage these examples falling in three broad categories (but are open to other ideas):
1. Alternative forms of economic management that enable workers, consumers, communities, farmers, for example, to have a voice. Examples could include the participation of workers or consumers on company boards, self-managed/autonomous work teams, community involvement in the allocation of development funds or the management of infrastructure, or more collaborative value chains.
2. Citizen voice in government economic policy-making: These examples might include participatory budgeting, citizens’ economic councils or even campaigns and activism that influence economic policy decisions.
3. Grassroots economic alternatives: People are not just waiting to be invited into processes led by others. Alternative forms of worker or consumer-owned enterprises, such as cooperatives, can be owned and managed by people for their own benefit. In addition, new models are emerging, often enabled by technology, in which people claim control over economic processes. These include local exchange networks and alternative currencies, for example.
For more information on the themes and on examples collected so far, see our Open Call at:
https://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/2018-EAP-OpenCall2.pdf ** Deadline for submissions: 31 May 2018 **