the economics of doing things differently

where would you place your work?

about this experiment

An anonymous experiment exploring the relationship between how fundamentally different a practice is from dominant systems and how secure the livelihoods of those involved are.

The diagram below sets out the experiment’s conceptual framework. It distinguishes structural advantage, systemic precarity, transformative precarity and transformative viability. Its diagonal “current tendency” is a hypothesis to investigate, not an empirical distribution or a conclusion drawn from responses.

Conceptual map of livelihood security against departure from dominant systems: structural advantage at top left, systemic precarity at bottom left, transformative precarity at bottom right and transformative viability at top right. A descending diagonal marks a hypothesised tendency toward insecurity as departure increases, not observed data. — Conceptual framework. Select the image to view it at full size.

how secure?: how reliably a practice enables those involved to meet their material and psychological needs.
how fundamentally different?: how deeply a practice questions and departs from the assumptions, values, and logics of dominant systems
reproduction: operates within and thereby sustains dominant assumptions about value, progress, nature, and social relations
reform: reduces harm or improves outcomes while leaving underlying assumptions largely intact
transformation: questions assumptions and builds from different ones, shifting power, ownership and relationships

No names, emails or accounts are requested. Responses are visible only to the researcher.