Anxiety status: Foundational thinking about the ‘fallen below’

This commentary responds to Bassens et al.'s call for a ‘foundational economy’ agenda in economic geography around the ‘fallen below’ and foundational liveability. I argue that their critique of the ‘left behind places’ literature lands and that their geographical synthesis of systems of provision, everyday lifeworlds, and political subjectification offers a promising research agenda for the present moment. However, I argue, the concept of ‘fallen below’ is a more destabilising category than they currently account for.