Citizens vs. Markets

<p>After an apparent temporary relief the financial crisis is back full steam. The ‘double dip’ has turned into a full-blown meltdown of financial markets public budgets and by and large democratic accountability. This global crisis is a fundamental wake-up call: a signal that our conventional political economy and perhaps the very foundations of our societies need a serious rethink. Currently the spotlight is on the role of political elites and economic agents (especially the investors included in the vague notion of ‘markets’) and their strategies to stabilize or destabilize countries from North America to the Eurozone. Regrettably the actual and potential role of civil society is hardly mentioned in public debate. Yet it is exactly within civil society that important responses to the crisis may emerge. It is within civil society that an alternative paradigm and a fundamental rethinking of conventional wisdom may be fostered. <i>Citizens vs. Markets</i> is the first book to unpack the transformative role of civil society in a sector in which it has traditionally been less proactive in order to reflect on possible forms of social transformation that are not merely remedial but also constructive in nature. This is the most important struggle of our times.</p><p>This book was published as a special issue of the <em>Journal of Civil Society</em>.</p>