Citizens' Initiatives for Democratic Nature Management and Community Development: Reflecting on Danish Experiences

Referring to Karl Polanyi, we have described the current crisis as essentially related to the fact that capitalism implies a dis-embedding of the economy from the rest of society and that means also a dis-embedding from its own grounds (cf. Chapter Three in this volume; Polanyi 2001 [1944]; also the Editors’ Introduction in this volume). A hierarchy is established between “productive” and “reproductive” activities. The “reproductive” activities may to a certain extent still be seen as necessary, but they are considered external to “the economy” unless they can be transformed into industrial or moneymaking activities, inscribed in capitalist logic. Thus, what counts as economy is today a very small part of the multitude and richness of activities constituting societal life, while at the same time, this small part tends to dominate society and seize more and more of our time, directly or indirectly transforming more and more life activities into monetary logics or their shadow pictures.