Abstract

The crisis of liberal capitalism spurred the emergence of organized experiences for the production and/or distribution of goods and services in more or less explicit opposition/alternatives to the capitalistic system. They are forms of production, consumption and distribution of goods and services that try to build novel economic practices and realize their own «anti-capitalistic» mobilization aims. This hybrid nature makes them of specific interest for a sociological analysis at the intersection of economy, politics, environment and society. In this paper we show how the critical capacity at the roots of these experiments depends on socio-technical assemblages where the joint commitment to act together for a different future engender collective effervescence and shared values, capable of generating symbolic and practical links between needs, solutions, interests and priorities more or less capable of «making themselves heard». We also illustrate that fostering a positive territorial identity grounded in the co-construction of local control over foundational asset is a mean of addressing feelings of remoteness that are commonly found in marginal areas.