How to abolish the abstract power of capital?

How to transform the capitalist system, which we experience as an abstract, alienating force that is independent from us? How can we design post-capitalist practices and institutions that will not reproduce this abstract force? In this article, Nicole Pepperell’s immanent Marxism, J.K. Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies, and a comparative analysis of market institutions in the cut flower sector are brought together to answer these questions. Pepperell theorises value and capital as emergent results of various local practices, none of which would reproduce capital in isolation from the broader assemblage in which they are currently embedded. Post-capitalism is understood as the repurposing of existing local practices for new emancipatory ends. Gibson-Graham’s project concretises this possibility through a reparative reading of diverse economic practices as the building blocks of an alternative collective life. This theoretical debate informs the empirical analysis of two cut flower markets in Turkey. Whereas the export market compels individuals to rationalise production and transform labour process, a domestic cut flower cooperative reconfigures the relationship between supply and demand, diverse prices, solidarity, and mutual aid through regulated local auctions. This helps growers to have autonomy and control over production without capitalist differentiation.