ABSTRACT
This volume identifies, through 16 research-based chapters, responses to insecurity in the Global South. We reveal the emergence of new spaces built in the interstices of neo-liberal capitalism. To understand these innovative responses we reconstruct Polanyi’s notion of the double movement and identify countermovements from above and below. The Polanyian pendulum (Figure 1.1 in the general Introduction to this volume) swings between states of insecurity and security. It symbolizes the double movement, which is characterized by the expansion of markets with disruptive consequences and the subsequent reaction by societal movements that aim to protect society. The metaphor could give the impression that the swinging back of the pendulum – or social responses to the Great Transformations – may be effortless and spontaneous. This volume suggests the contrary: it requires great effort, agency and organization to respond to the impact of neo-liberal capitalism.
