Sustainable societies, (feminist) economic imageries and different rationalities

A broader scope of sustainability requires a different look at the very concept of the economy as well as of Economics as a socially relevant field of knowledge. Social and Solidarity Economies have played pivotal roles in this resizing since they demonstrate hidden aspects that a mathematised and neoclassical economic approach has insistently ignored. Nonetheless, we should question: to what extent are our theories capable of depicting the changes brought by ordinary citizens and communities where organisations have become a hostage to the State and the (capitalist) market? Have we equally valued all Polanyian principles of economic integration or have we just bet on a version of less aggressive market?

This short paper has thus three main goals. The first one is connected with the very concept of sustainability on which we have grounded our discussions. The second goal is concerned with the need for better framing the ones who have contributed to the re-embeddedness of the economy and the revitalisation of principles of economic integration beyond the market. I argue that we should pay more attention to the epistemological and political challenges women have brought to the concepts and their limits. Departing from some non-Western sustainable solutions, I present my third goal: to point up to the connection between sustainable societies and economic democracy, having in mind that economic democracy requires from us milestones such as environmental justice and broadened economic imageries.