The Foundational Economy and Citizenship: Comparative Perspectives on Civil Repair (Civil Society and Social Change)

The Foundational Economy encompasses those goods and services, together with the economic and social relationships that underpin them, that provide the everyday infrastructure of civilized life. Policies that promote commodification, privatization and financialisation have incorporated many of these goods and services within market logics, with profound and damaging impacts on the daily lives of citizens. This edited collection extends theoretical and empirical work on the Foundational Economy to explore its relevance to the civil sphere and to civil repair. Our aim is to advance foundational thinking in three key areas. First, we set out detailed evidence on the impact of growth based and financialised solutions on local democracy, citizenship and civil society and explore alternative approaches to citizenship and social justice that are rooted in the Foundational Economy. Second, we provide, for the first time, important comparative perspectives on the development of foundational thinking. And third we document detailed and critical case studies in core areas of economic and social life. Addressing a range of substantive areas of concern, individual chapters use case studies at different national and regional levels to illustrate the arguments being developed. This unique collection demonstrates that there is clear evidence that The Foundational Economy is already influencing policy making at devolved nation and city region scales and is having international reach. In contrast to exclusively ‘bottom-up’ approaches however, we maintain that a Foundational Economy approach requires us to address the key institutions of our societies and the role of public action in those institutions. Front cover Halftitle Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures and tables Notes on the editors and contributors Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The foundational economy and the civil sphere Part I: Governance and public action 2. Re-embedding the economy within digitalized foundational sectors: The case of platform cooperativism 3. Reframing public ownership in the foundational economy: (Re)discovering a variety of forms 4. The non-profit paradox after the 2008 financial crisis: How to survive within a changing scenario Part II: Housing and urban life 5. Planning with citizenship: An idea whose time has come in Greater Manchester? 6. Housing and the grounded city: Rent extraction and social innovations Part III: Water and waste 7. Waste management and value extraction in Italy: Where is the citizen? Waste to worth 8. Civil society and the movement for public water: Water management and its transformation in the UK and Italy Part IV: Food 9. Changing food supply chains: The role of citizens and civil society organizations in working towards a social economy 10. Foodscapes of hope: The foundational economy of food Conclusions and new policy directions Index Back cover

The principles of the modern foundational economy and its role in renewing citizenship and informing public policy are explored for the first time in this instructive collection. Challenging mainstream social and economic thinking, it shows how foundational economy experiments at different scales can foster radical social innovation through collective, rather than private, consumption. An interdisciplinary group of respected European academics provide case studies of initiatives and interventions around policy cornerstones including housing, food supply and water and waste management. They build a judicious evidence base of the growing relevance of foundational economic thinking and its potential to provide a new political and social outlook on civil society and social justice.

With thinking around the foundational economy becoming increasingly influential, this interdisciplinary collection sets out its role in renewing citizenship and informing policy. Drawing on case studies in areas of social and economic concern, it explores how foundational experiments can foster collective consumption and promote social justice. Edited By Filippo Barbera And Ian Rees Jones. Electronic Reproduction. New York Available Via World Wide Web.