Responding with and for Joy

Abstract

The coeditors of The Handbook of Diverse Economies revisit their work and respond to essays reviewing it, with curiosity amid bizarre and dark times in the global political economy: billionaires co-opt working-class politics in the United States, colonial ambitions in Aotearoa New Zealand undermine Indigenous gains, and environmental devastation deepens despair. The Handbook and review essays together remind us that both old and new thinking tools can offer sustenance. As the reviewers note, wallowing in despair and reifying the bizarre elements of political economy reflects a privileged stance. The fleeting pleasure of being the all-knowing analytical subject—akin to the paranoid subject—offers control over horrors, but at a cost. Inspired by their reviewers, the Handbook coeditors shift from despair and control to the sustained joy of learning from multiplicity and difference, advocating for joy and speculation while inventorying diverse economies to nurture the flourishing Community Economies Collective.