Recasting solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic

A Case Study

Bibliographic Data

ID6382425
AuthorsAide Esu (0000-0003-4228-5115, University of Cagliari, corresponding author), Valeria Dessì (0000-0003-1385-3400, University of Cagliari)
Year2024
Volume23
Issue6
Pages794-810
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial movement studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-2829 • E-ISSN: 1474-2837
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14742837.2022.2134105
OpenAlexW4306160041
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

The practices of social movements during the pandemic show how severe limitations on political and social organization have been turned into opportunities by increasing the focus on social justice and care-based initiatives, building trust and solidarity. This case \nstudy explores how the urban militants of the anti-military occupation movement A Foras (Out) maintained visibility during the pandemic. \nBesides calling attention to the unethical growth of military spending concurrent with the lack of investment in public health during the COVID-19 crisis, the movement engaged in mutualistic action against pandemic-related issues, such as isolation, and social exclusion. We examine ethnographically this hybridized mobilization, which is grounded on the significance of solidarity, community, and the nature of public life. By making social inequality, exclusion and isolation more visible, mutualistic practices act in \nthe social justice arena as a ‘purposive orientation’. This case study offers an example of a grassroots social movement renewing its space of knowledge production by widening its agency and reconfiguring care as an action for political change, adding to the \nnotion of caring democracy by giving rise to a mutualist initiative based on horizontality and potential reciprocity. The article provides an up-to-date understanding of how imaginaries and care practices activated around solidarity, security, and safety are recasting society in southern Europe in the wake of COVID-19. It contributes to the debate around caring democracy in social movements studies by rethinking the significance of caring infrastructures and, ultimately, the meaning of solidarity and trust

Agency (philosophy · Democracy · Grassroots · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Global Security and Public Health · Law