Escaping from capitalism: the enactment of alternative lifeworlds in France’s mountain regions
Résumé
As in many EU countries, initiatives in agroecology, eco-construction and eco-housing, recycling, energy transition, local currencies, local food networks and cooperatives have been mushrooming across France since the beginning of the 21st century, with a particular increase since the global financial crisis. In the wake of growing critique towards neoliberalism and interest in sustainability transitions, such community-led grassroots organisations build concrete alternatives to the crisis-prone present. This chapter explores the enactment of such lifeworlds, taking a closer look at the modes of being and doing of alternative communities in rural mountain regions in the southeast of France. It explores the underlying motivations and values and delves into everyday practices. As the dominant conventional regime does not provide regulatory frameworks for the intended ways of living together, the actors have to imagine and create their desired worlds ex nihilo. Experimentation, improvisation, innovation and constant struggles for recognition by the local authorities and population are at play when creating such places of otherness. Further, the chapter explores the potential for a wider transformation which potentially favours the mitigation of impacts of crisis on a broader scale, by transmitting alternative values and practices to the incumbent local system.
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