A Thought Experiment - BLARB

In their book The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It), J.K. Gibson-Graham, a two-person writing team, examine a conundrum: after innumerable examinations of capitalism's inherent contradictions, and despite decades of projects devoted specifically to accelerating its demise, capitalism seems as vibrant as ever. Gibson-Graham ask, "In the face of these efforts, how has capitalism maintained such a strong grip on political economy?" The answer they offer is oblique but striking: perhaps it hasn't. More precisely, they suggest that the conventional wisdom that economic life is dominated by capitalist relations is not, in fact, true. They point to the wide range of forms of economic engagement that fall outside the limits of traditional political economy -- domestic activity, relations of care, mutual support, self-sustenance, and more -- to argue that capitalism is only one amongst a range of concurrent forms of economic life -- and perhaps not even the most common.