Abstract

Community economic scholars-practitioners have effectively pointed out flaws in the sustainability transitions research (e.g., Schmid & Taylor Aiken, 2023), arguing for 'community-led transformation'. In so doing, CE scholars engage in performative ontological projects: they seek to contribute to a reality they wish to see. As such, CE scholarship is oftentimes constructive rather than critical, focusing on the particular using weak theory and thick description. This practice places 'critical' and 'constructive' research practices at two seemingly opposite ends of a binary. Some DE scholars have challenged this binary, pleading for their reconciliation (e.g., Miller, 2019; Gabriel & Sarmiento, 2020; Alhojärvi, 2020; Naylor & Thayer, 2022). In this session we will discuss the practical implications of such a reconciliation in DE scholarship, e.g. taking on the following questions: How can CE scholarship foster ubiquity of community economies ('scaling out' rather than 'scaling up')? How can CE scholars be politically activist while still adhering to the flat ontology underpinning CE thinking? If time allows, we can also discuss other potential opportunities/roadblocks in CE research practices, surrounding for example power, scale, and transformation.