Rethinking the Nature of Community Economies: Some Lessons from Post-Soviet Ukraine

Abstract

This paper contributes to a small but growing body of thought that has questioned the hegemony of capitalism by revealing the persistence of multifarious economic practices in everyday community economies. To further advance this school of thought, first, a conceptual framework is developed to map the diverse economic practices used by communities and second, this is applied through a survey of 600 households in Ukraine. The outcome is to reveal that just as multifarious economic practices prevailed under state socialism, the same applies in societies in transition to capitalism, suggesting that there are alternative futures for community economies beyond market hegemony.

Keywords: informal sector, underground economy, economic development, Ukraine, post-socialist societies

JEL Classification: H26, J46, K42, O17