Feeding donkeys carrots? A banker’s perspective on a temporary occupation’s alter-crafting in Paris, France

Abstract

This article explores the political and economic anthropology of alternative futures through an ethnographic study of alter-crafting—a term used to describe the contested processes of value creation in experimental social projects. The ethnographer’s participation in managing a local currency project in Paris, France, within the temporary occupation of a former pediatric hospital set to become a future “eco-district,” serves as an exemplary case study. I describe the historicity, temporalities, and social life of this infrastructure’s hybrid, socio-ecological temporary occupation project through the lens of what I call its neighborhood concerns. I argue that this case offers privileged insights into the politics of value involved in alter-crafting.