Postcapitalist Countrysides comprises a collection of chapters that are structured and sequenced to explore the tensions that arise from the established conventions of economic production and private accumulation, as they affect life, wealth, and work in rural areas. Its premise is that capitalism, as we experience it today, is incapable of solving key societal challenges - centered on social justice and sustainable livelihoods. By rethinking land, capital and labour relationships, post-capitalism offers glimpses of alternative modes of socio-economic organisation, achievable through local pre-figurative actions today and capable of being upscaled through structural supports in the future. The glimpses of hopeful futures offered in this collection focus on rural places, communities and economies.
Praise for Postcapitalist Countrysides
'A comprehensive, wide-ranging and pioneering book, with a strong economics and planning emphasis, creatively foregrounding the place of our countryside today within debates about post-capitalism. Highly timely, especially when we read in it of aspects of such a future emerging from acute tensions expressed by capitalism in our everyday countrysides.'
Keith Halfacree, Swansea University