Introduction

The social economy as the 'conduct of conduct' sees it as a 'liberal Trojan horse', designed to extend and naturalise markets or quasi-market forms across both the local and central state or as a flanking mechanism to enable neoliberal roll-out strategies. The social economy, a co-operative and access to capital might help, but traditions of sharing and exchange, skills and governance capacity and access to cheap finance reveal their limitations as transferable solutions for the world's poor. The city is economically organised and socially produced and brings space into relation with economics and the politics of inequality, as D. Harvey suggests. Accumulation for social gain needs to address the same co-ordination problems as private and state markets and assemble the structures, networks, institutions and cognitive routines that might make it work in more inclusive ways. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.