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Why and how do alternative economies emerge, how do they develop and what is their contribution, if any, to transformative politics? Alternative economies proliferate in the countries worse hit by economic crisis and austerity, such as Spain or Greece. Yet the existing literature is stuck in a counter-productive division between celebration and critique. We move beyond this division applying philosopher Daniel Bensaïd's understanding of politics to two alternative food economies, one in the Basque Country and one in Greece. We illuminate the activist strategies and specific conjunctures within which the two alternatives emerged and explain how they develop in the face of political-economic barriers. Alternative economies, we conclude, can be transformational when they are inserted in activist strategies directed to extend conflict, social struggles and challenge the capital-state nexus. Resumen: ¿Por qué y cómo emergen las economías alternativas, cómo se desarrollan y de que manera contribuyen, si es que lo hacen, a la política transformadora? En los países más afectados por la crisis económica y las políticas de austeridad, como España o Grecia, proliferan experiencias de economías alternativas. Sin embargo, la literatura no ha discutido más allá de las visiones o bien celebradoras o bien críticas de las economías alternativas, generando una división contra-productiva para la análisis. En este artículo vamos más allá de esta división, aplicando la comprensión de política de Bensaïd a dos economías alimentarias alternativas, una en el País Vasco y una en Grecia. Mostramos las estrategias de activismo y coyunturas específicas dentro de la cuales surgieron ambas alternativas y explicamos cómo se desarrollan frente a barreras institucionales y económicas. De esta manera, concluimos que las economías alternativas pueden ser transformadoras cuando se insertan en estrategias activistas dirigidas a ampliar los conflictos y las luchas sociales desafiando el nexo entre capital y estado.

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Exclusionary and regressive politics are on the rise globally. How do food sovereignty struggles help counter these forces? We ground our analysis on how EHNE-Bizkaia, a Vía Campesina member organisation in the Basque Country, conceptualises and practices food sovereignty. Inspired by Massey's 'politics of place beyond place' and Featherstone's work on left politics and solidarity, we shed light on the ways that this organisation mobilises food sovereignty to establish political bonds between those marginalised by neo-liberalism, helping to construct political identities and enact forms of subaltern agency that challenge uneven power relations and geographies. We argue that 'solidarity from below' is key in building an emancipatory rural politics rooted in class-based alliances, intersectionality, and internationalism as well as non-exclusionary notions of sovereignty. The article provides theoretical and empirical insights on what constitutes an emancipatory politics of food sovereignty that has the potential to act as a counterforce to right-wing populism. Calvário et al.

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