AbstractThis workshop seeks to open space for discussion about the emotional consequences we (and our audiences) face as we talk and write about alternative economic possibilities. To “build the road as we travel” (Morrison , 1991), we are obliged to engage with options that have been rendered virtually unthinkable and unsayable in mainstream economic discourse. In a discursive terrain that is shaped by the prominence of captialcentric economic narratives, promoting alternatives to capitalism is to lie outside mainstream intelligibility. We are often confronted with opposition and scorn as our embrace of economic possibilities is depicted as both incomprehensible and pathological. This conversation opens space to understand how we make ourselves understood amidst this epistemic opposition. In part, this invites consideration of how we manage the emotional entailments we face- and our audiences face- as we venture into economic conversations that are beyond the scope of possibility in mainstream economic discourse. Special attention will be paid to addressing the emotional fragilities that surface as we encounter the unknown, and how these fragilities can be manipulative to fuel hostility towards those of us who articulate systemically- challenging ideas. This session is intended as a conversation and will take place in English.
