Sharing Subjects and Legality: Ambiguities in Moving Beyond Neoliberalism

Abstract

This chapter draws from an extensive study of grass-roots innovation in response to climate change challenges, across a continuum from social activism to social enterprise. We examine the diverse motivations of entrepreneurs for starting community-supported agricultural projects, car-sharing schemes or co-working spaces. First, we show how the various biographical trajectories of the entrepreneurs shape the ways they create initiatives that espouse economic, environmental and social benefits. Second, we argue that such benefits should be understood through the ambiguity of a socio-legal lens. While sharing subjects may occasionally catalyze opportunities to move beyond neoliberalism, the ways in which lawyers and legal techniques shape the infrastructure of collaboration are deeply implicated in the economics of the neoliberal inheritance.