Giuseppe Feola preents at Grassroots Innovation webinar

On 9 June, Giuseppe Feola presented the paper ‘Beyond Refusal: Reconceptualizing Deconstruction in Prefigurative Social Spaces‘ at the Grassroots Innovation webinar (part of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network).

Social scientists have often studied grassroots initiatives through the lens of prefiguration, generating important insights into the construction of alternatives to capitalism. However, the role of deconstructive processes such as the refusal to engage with capitalist logics and relations remains debated and undertheorised. This chapter brings new theoretical perspectives into conversation with theorisations of refusal in prefiguration, advancing a novel understanding of deconstructive processes in prefigurative grassroots initiatives. Building upon a conceptualisation of grassroots initiatives as the production of social space, the chapter makes three contributions to the debate on refusal in prefiguration. First, it contends that the prefiguration of alternatives to capitalism by grassroots initiatives is inherently entangled with deconstructive processes of differentiation from capitalist cultural and sociomaterial configurations. Thus, deconstructive processes disable or weaken capitalism’s influence on prefigurative initiatives. Second, to comprehend such deconstruction, scholars should rely on a conceptual repertoire that encompasses refusal as well as other processes such as unlearning, sacrifice, and defamiliarisation. Third, the chapter contends that such deconstructive processes may enable, if not be preconditional for, prefiguration.

The full paper can be downloaded here, and a shorter version is available here.