Economic micro-systems? Non-market and not-only-for-profit economic activities in eco-communities

• Authors: Jan Blažek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Eco-communities are a potential model for the socio-technological transition to a post-carbon society. The debate over their economic sustainability has, however, been limited. This article aims to enhance the discussion by offering a conceptualization of the economic micro-system created in eco-communities. It uses the economic terms households and firms to discuss two ways in which the community economy is positioned and then goes on to explore the principles behind the non-market (non-monetary) activities of households and the not-only-for-profit activities of firms as the basis of the eco-community economy. It concludes by pointing out that both can operate in parallel, with eco-communities producing non-market capital that can be used to develop not-only-for-profit activities which support the economic sustainability of the projects.

Keywords

EN

eco-community; non-market economy; economic sustainability; not-only-for-profit economy; eco-social enterprise

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 377-389

Dates

published

2016-10-01

online

2016-10-17

Contributors

author

Jan Blažek

• Department of Environmental Studies, Masaryk University, 602 00 Brno, Joštova 10, Czech Republic

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/humaff-2016-0032