Alternative Value Creation

The two case studies in Part III of this book highlight the way in which informal life politics challenges conventional notions of value in two senses of the word. Living politics questions the domination of life by economic calculations of commercial value; and, through proposing alternative forms of exchange, it seeks to assert the importance of neglected ethical values. These interconnected processes of alternative value creation may appear on the surface to be a retreat into nostalgia, or an unrealistic attempt to return to the good old days. But Wei and Morris-Suzuki argue that the value creation in informal life politics involves innovation as much as the recovery of tradition and creates networked communities that go far beyond the mere restoration of traditional society.