ICS Seminar Series - Stephen Healy
Date: Thursday 26 November 2015
Time: 11.30am - 1pm
Venue: EA.1.02, Western Sydney University, Parramatta South campus
Stephen Healy
Solidarity Economies in Three US Cities, Mapping the Impact and Significance of Mutual Aid
Abstract
The contemporary concept of the solidarity economy developed simultaneously in Latin America and France during the 1980s. The name 'solidarity economy' attempts to describe an approach to economic development that emphasises cooperation (frequently in the context of cooperatives), democratic inclusion, and equity. Solidarity economy exists alongside a suite of other terms that describe an ethico-political approach to economic development and social transformation. In the USA there has been an explosive interest in municipalities across the country in cooperative approaches to economic development in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. The US Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN) has played a key role in advocating for solidarity economies and connecting the US solidarity economy to The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social and Solidarity Economy, RIPESS. In this presentation I detail the preliminary findings of a three year research project entitled Mapping the US Solidarity Economy which was funded by the National Science Foundation. Our interdisciplinary research team included economists, geographers and political scientists. We set out to explore the solidarity economy in Philadelphia, New York, and Worcester Massachusetts. We deployed geospatial analysis, quantitative modelling, and in-depth qualitative interviews to assess the economic impact, cultural and political significance of the solidarity economy. In this paper I reflect on the results of our project and raise a few concerns about the solidarity economy as an ethico-politics. I see great promise in the solidarity economy as a form of post-capitalist politics but only in so far as 'solidarity' functions as a context of recognising extensive interdependences. A persistent danger is the reduction of our understanding of solidarity economy to its formal institutions (cooperatives, credit unions) and ensuring their commercial viability to the exclusion of other concerns.
Biography
Dr Stephen Healy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society. Since completing his doctorate in Geography at the University of Massachusetts Amherst his research has concentrated on the relationship between economy, subjectivity and the enactment of new econo-socialities exploring various topics: health care reform policy, the role of cooperatives in regional development, and the solidarity economy movement. In each instance his abiding concern has been to apply insights from Marxian and psychoanalytic theory to understand the desires, fantasies and anxieties that compose the restive human subject. Stephen is a founding member of the Community Economies Research Network (CERN), a steering committee member for the Relational Poverty Network, and an editorial associate for Rethinking Marxism.
