ABSTRACT
Another globalization is not only possible, it already exists. This book advances what I term infraglobalization as a catalytic socio-spatial concept and practice with emancipatory potential for greater grassroots agency. In this book I build a case for a propositional praxis for the reclamation of ground-up globalization, which involves multiple pathways towards development with social justice. As an interpretive framework, infraglobalization is conceived as a contrapuntal way of seeing, knowing and doing that can contribute to the creative constitution of global and local processes. From the outset my argument adheres to the idea that strategically asking the question ‘what is already being done?’ rather than ‘what is to be done?’ may be a more enabling entry point that helps foster greater autonomy for various grassroots groups and movements. With the southern Indian state of Kerala as my principal empirical locus, I investigate a number of already existing alternatives as well as the prospects for a plurality of successful strategies, which also may exist in parallel with ‘neoliberal’ restructuring. These include participatory planning and community-led microenterprises as an alternative to corporatist-led microfinance.
