A hopeful but nonetheless hard-hitting analysis of alternative economic spaces proliferating in the belly of the capitalist beast. In this book Leyshon, Lee and Williams convene fascinating studies of exchange, enterprise, credit and community. They invite us onto a new and promising discursive terrain where we can analyze, criticize and above all recognize actually existing economies of diversity in the wealthy countries of the West' - J K Gibson-Graham, Australian National University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In the context of problems in the new economy' - from dot.com sta.;Introduction : Alternative economic geographies / Andrew Leyshon and Roger Lee -- The alterity of the social economy / Ash Amin, Angus Cameron and Ray Hudson -- Alternative financial spaces / Duncan Fuller and Andrew E.G. Jonas -- Alternative retail spaces / Louise Crewe, Nicky Gregson and Kate Brooks -- Alternative work spaces / Andrew Lincoln -- Alternative employment spaces / Colin C. Williams and Jan Windebank -- Alternative exchange spaces / Colin C. Williams, Theresa Aldridge and Jane Tooke -- Alternative lifestyle spaces / Jeffrey Jacob -- Conclusions : Re-making geographies and the construction of 'spaces of hope' / Roger Lee and Andrew Leyshon.