ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the alternative and community economies literature by exploring some of the ambiguity around ‘the ethical.’ It discusses the intellectual context of community economies, ethics and feminist interventions in ethical thought that guides this line of questioning. The empirical example draws attention to the embodied materiality of economic practice, highlighting how Kufundees cultivate a sense of self and community that is immanent and relational. Community economies are often self-defined alternatives to hegemonic capitalism and organised in a way that seeks to transcend the emphasis on extraction of surplus value that is so characteristic of mainstream capitalism. The literature on community economies and commoning often places an emphasis on care and social reproduction. Feminists have long sought to highlight the importance of reproductive labour that fundamentally supports capitalist economies. It is commonly recognised that modern capitalist concepts of the economy have been imbued with a Cartesian ethics.
