The Politics of Value is a timely examination of three movements that gathered force in the wake of the 2008 recession: the 2011 Wisconsin uprising to protest a bill that restricted the union rights of state workers; the movement to charter a new kind of corporation called a benefit corporation; and a group called Slow Money, which fosters patient peer-to-peer investing. It responds to the wide social unrest about what value means today. The term had been codified as market frameworks came to dominate the economy: factors ...
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The Politics of Value is a timely examination of three movements that gathered force in the wake of the 2008 recession: the 2011 Wisconsin uprising to protest a bill that restricted the union rights of state workers; the movement to charter a new kind of corporation called a benefit corporation; and a group called Slow Money, which fosters patient peer-to-peer investing. It responds to the wide social unrest about what value means today. The term had been codified as market frameworks came to dominate the economy: factors like GDP growth, profitability, and share price. Through these three movements, Collins demonstrates how citizens in a group have taken concrete actions that ask us to reflect on what is needed to create a just, sustainable, and well-functioning economic system. In one case, activists raise questions about the responsibilities of business, in a second about the significance of local economy, and in a third about the contributions of the public sector. To be clear, this is not a story driven by the productions of professional economists; rather, it examines vernacular discourses and practices, how people conceptualize and enact their understanding of the economy and its workings in their daily lives. "
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