ABSTRACT
The economy operates on a global scale but social reproduction takes place within definable territorial units — the household, cities, regions and the nation state — and while capital may flow ceaselessly around the world, people, even the ‘global astronauts’ referred to in the previous chapter, have to touch down from time to time to recuperate and recharge their batteries. Individuals generally renew themselves within households and families and overall social reproduction takes place within cities, regions and the nation state. In the current context the stability of families is waning, inequality is widening and there is a growing imbalance between the economy, which increasingly operates on a global scale, and the powers of nation states, which are primarily national, which potentially threatens individual and social sustainability.
