Gift economies arise from an understanding of earthly abundance and the gratitude it generates. A perception of abundance, based on the notion that there is enough if we share it, underlies economies of mutual support.
What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from gift economies?
Diversity in ways of being is an antidote to scarcity-induced competition.
Reciprocity – not scarcity
Competition makes sense only when we consider the unit of evolution to be the individual. When the focus shifts to the level of a group, cooperation is a better model, not only for surviving but for thriving.
An investment in community always comes back to you in some way.
“The gift builds relationship, and that’s always a good thing. That’s what we really produce here—relationship, with each other and with the farm.”
Paulie – from The Service Berry and essay by Robin Wall Kimmerer
When we center our economy on cooperation we can focus on what we really want: relationship and purpose and beauty and meaning, which can never be commoditized.
Do you want to be part of a system in which wealth means having enough to share, and where the gratification of meeting your family needs is not poisoned by destroying that possibility for someone else?
Do you want to live in a society where the currency of exchange is gratitude and the infinitely renewable resource of kindness, which multiplies every time it is shared rather than depreciating with use?
We no longer live in small, insular societies, where generosity and mutual esteem structure our relations. But we could.
It is within our power to create such webs of interdependence, quite outside the market economy.
Intentional communities of mutual self-reliance and reciprocity are the wave of the future, and their currency is sharing.
The move toward a local food economy is not just about freshness and food miles and carbon footprints and soil organic matter. It is all of those things, but it’s also about the deeply human desire for connection, to be in reciprocity with the gifts that are given you.
“There is symbiosis at every single level of living things, and you cannot compete in a zero-sum game with creatures upon whom your existence depends.”
Richard Powers
How can we create incentives to nurture a gift economy that runs right alongside the market economy, where the good that is served is community?
What we crave is not trickle-down, faceless profits, but reciprocal, face-to-face relationships, which are naturally abundant but made scarce by the anonymity of large-scale economics. We have the power to change that, to develop the local, reciprocal economies that serve the community, rather than undermine it.
“In nature, headlong growth and all-out competition are features of immature ecosystems, followed by complex interdependency, symbiosis, cooperation, and the cycling of resources. The next stage of human economy will parallel what we are beginning to understand about nature. It will call forth the gifts of each of us; it will emphasize cooperation over competition; it will encourage circulation over hoarding; and it will be cyclical, not linear. Money may not disappear anytime soon, but it will serve a diminished role even as it takes on more of the properties of the gift. The economy will shrink, and our lives will grow.”
Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics
Economies based on competition for manufactured scarcity, rather than cooperation around natural abundance, is now causing us to face the danger of producing real scarcity, evident in growing shortages of food and clean water, breathable air, and fertile soil.
Climate change is a product of this extractive economy and is forcing us to confront the inevitable outcome of our consumptive lifestyle, genuine scarcity for which the market has no remedy. Indigenous story traditions are full of these cautionary teachings. When the gift is dishonored, the outcome is always material as well as spiritual. Disrespect the water and the springs dry up. Waste the corn and the garden grows barren. Regenerative economies that cherish and reciprocate the gift are the only path forward.
Mutual Aid
Mutual aid is a voluntary, reciprocal exchange of resources and services for community support, built on solidarity rather than charity. It involves horizontal, grassroots organizing where people meet each other’s needs—such as food, supplies, and care—directly, often during crises, to challenge systemic inequality.
Key aspects of mutual aid include:
- Solidarity, Not Charity: Unlike charity, which is often top-down and conditional, mutual aid is based on the belief that all lives have value and resources should be shared unconditionally.
- Horizontal Structure: Decisions are made collectively, breaking down hierarchies and fostering community trust.
- Addressing Root Causes: It aims to support community wellbeing while actively resisting unjust systems.
- Flexibility: It can take many forms, from disaster relief, such as in the COVID-19 pandemic, to neighborhood, food-sharing, or, supply-sharing, efforts.
Local Mutual Aid Resources
Oshkosh Vagabond Network – The Oshkosh Vagabond Network is a mutual aid group in Oshkosh, WI, offering unconditional, community-based support to the working-class, low-income, unhoused, and marginalized individuals.
Oshkosh Tool Library – The tool library is a free community resource that lends tools for home repair and projects. It’s a place for the community to share equipment and experience.
Bodega @ MultiCultural Coalition – Menasha – A bodega is a convenient little corner shop, and the MultiCultural Coalition’s bodega in Menasha is free to the community. They need help processing donations, stocking shelves, assisting guests and more!
Hope Fridge – (Menasha & Oshkosh) – Hope Fridge donates & manages community fridges. Take what you need, Give what you can!
Collectives
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an economic benefit or saving, though they can be.
Types of Collectives
Collectives are sometimes characterised by attempts to share and exercise political and social power and to make decisions on a consensus-driven and egalitarian basis. (wikipedia)
A commune or intentional community, which may also be known as a “collective household”, is a group of people who live together in some kind of dwelling or residence, or in some other arrangement (e.g., sharing land). Collective households may be organized for a specific purpose (e.g., relating to business, parenting, or some other shared interest).
Artist collectives, including musical collectives, are typically a collection of individuals with similar interests in producing and documenting art as a group. These groups can range in size from a few people to thousands of members. The style of art produced can have vast differences. Motivations can be for a common cause or individually motivated purposes. Some collectives are simply people who enjoy painting with someone else and have no other goals or motivations for forming their collective.
A worker cooperative is a type of horizontal collective wherein a business functions as a partnership of individual professionals, recognizing them as equals and rewarding them for their expertise.
Local Collectives
Oshkosh Seed Savers – A Growing Collective
Farmshed (Stevens Point and Central WI) – Farmshed’s mission is to grow a resilient local food economy.
Being Collective – center for connection + wellbeing. Being Collective is a group of unique and aligned BEings, coming together collectively to serve our commUnity with classes, gatherings, and special events that inspire soul growth, connection, and creativity,
Cooperatives
A cooperative (or co-op) is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet common economic, social, or cultural needs through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. As an adjective, it means working together for a common purpose or being helpful and compliant.
Local Cooperatives
Oshkosh Food Coop – A Community-owned Grocery Store in Oshkosh’s Central City
Oshkosh Tool Library – The tool library is a free community resource that lends tools for home repair and projects. It’s a place for the community to share equipment and experience.
Municipalism
Municipalism is a political philosophy and strategy that emphasizes radical democracy, decentralization, and organizing at the local municipal level (cities, towns) rather than relying on the centralized nation-state. It empowers communities through neighborhood assemblies, promoting direct democracy, public ownership of services, and sustainable, cooperative, or feminist politics.
Resources
Municipalism Learning Series – Municipalism is an emergent global movement to seize the city and liberate it from neo-liberal capitalism and the nation state.
Social Ecology
Social Ecology advocates a reconstructive and transformative outlook on social and environmental issues, and promotes a directly democratic, confederal politics. Social Ecology envisions a moral economy that moves beyond scarcity and hierarchy, toward a world that reharmonizes human communities with the natural world, while celebrating diversity, creativity, and freedom.
What literally defines social ecology as “social” is its recognition of the often overlooked fact that nearly all our present ecological problems arise from deep-seated social problems.
Resources
Institute for Social Ecology – Popular education for a free
and ecological society
Imaginal Visioning
Ecotopia
Ecotopia initiatives emphasize, among other goals, the training of citizens for sustainable, globalized, and ecological futures.
Ecotopia: ‘It isn’t a fantasy: we have the tools right now, we just need to use them correctly’ – Solarpunk
Ecotopia is the concept of an ideal, sustainable society that exists in harmony with nature, prioritizing ecological balance, renewable energy, and low-impact living. Popularized by Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 novel, it envisions a decentralized, green society where technology serves environmental restoration and waste is eliminated through circular systems.
Key Principles of Ecotopia
- Environmental Harmony: Societies prioritize sustainability, aiming for zero-waste, organic agriculture, and the use of renewable resources.
- Decentralized Living: A move away from large, industrialized cities toward self-sufficient, smaller communities and localized economies.
- Green Technology: Use of advanced technology (e.g., photovoltaics) to support ecological goals rather than pollute.
- Social Structure: Often emphasizes gender equality, cooperative social structures, and a shift away from high-consumption, capitalist lifestyles.
- Economic Shift: Focuses on goods that are durable and repairable, internalizing environmental costs.
Origins and Impact
The concept originated in the novel Ecotopia, which depicted a region that seceded from the United States to build a stable-state economy. While fictional, it has influenced real-world environmental movements, the development of green cities, and the concept of “Cascadia” as a sustainable, regional entity. It is frequently cited as a “thought experiment” or “politics fiction” that explores how humanity can transition to a sustainable future.
Ecotopia (1975) by Ernest Callenbach is a seminal utopian novel depicting a sustainable, breakaway nation in the Pacific Northwest (Northern California, Oregon, Washington). It features a “steady-state” economy, recycling, solar power, and a 20-hour workweek. The story is told through the reports of a visiting US reporter, highlighting a woman-led society prioritizing environmental balance over growth.
Ecotopia was influential in shaping 1970s counterculture and environmental movements, offering a vision for a “stable-state” existence. While considered a novel, it is often referenced as a foundational text for ecological sustainability.
Ecotopian Values
The values embodied by those Ecotopians depicted in the novel reflect the values espoused by its author. Callenbach said that his Ecotopians attach fundamental importance to environmental and social stability within which variety can flourish. They value creativity. They ensure equality for women. They implement the protection and restoration of natural systems. They promote food production in their cities. They treasure personal quality-of-life values, such as health and friendliness, and both meaningful discussion and play.
Personal Connections to Ecotopia
The founders of Common Roots Rising read Ecotopia in the early 1990’s. This book influenced their social and environmentally conscious business work through their entrepreneurism activities in the 1990’s. Mark and Savi owned a veggie restaurant and juice bar called Ecotopia Cafe from 1996 to 2001 in Appleton, WI as part of their salon, spa and eco-store. The book, Ecotopia inspired the name for the cafe and influenced future interest in human centered economies and collective transformation.
Ecotopia Resources:
Ecotopia.com – Design strategy for a new millenium
Resources
Sacred Economics – Charles Eisenstein
Understand our history of money and how can we transform to a more connected, ecological way of living and transition to an abundance and gift economy.
The Serviceberry – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reciprocity and gratitude, the gift economy and abundance economy
The Solidarity Economy – A global movement to build a just and sustainable economy prioritizing people and the planet.
Solidarity Research Center – a worker self-directed nonprofit organization that builds solidarity economy ecosystems using data science, story-based strategy, and action research. We work at the intersection of racial justice and solidarity economies.
Partnerism: – A socio-economic system that values and rewards caring for one another, nature, and our collective future.
Generative Local Community Institute – Generative Local Community Vision: All People Flourish to Their Full Potential
Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Transformation of Societies – Sri Aurobindo built a synthesis of different life paths (“yogas”) he called “integral yoga.” This yoga does not aim at spiritual realization as a divine escape from human life and material experience— something Aurobindo critiqued in other practices. Rather, it seeks to constantly ascend to the divine and bring this down to transform one’s human condition—mind, life, and body—thus setting the basis for a collective transformation on Earth.
Auroville – Auroville, India is a utopian city founded in 1968 that welcomes all nationalities searching for a perfect planet, without money or government. (the Common Roots Rising founders visited Auroville in 2006)