The Butterfly that is the Social Solidarity Economy
DETAIL OF UNTITLED, FROM THE SERIES “CAPITALISM IS KILLING US/BLACK UTOPIAS” BY AISHA SHILLINGFORD/WWW.INTELLIGENTMISCHIEF.COM
In Emily Kawano’s article Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy, in the Summer 2021 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly, Kawano draws parallels between the the social solidarity economy and a butterfly. This metaphor is excellent in communicating the ideology of the DISE Collective, and is worth noting.
The story of a butterfly’s metamorphosis provides a lovely and useful metaphor for the metamorphosis from a system of capitalism to a postcapitalist system: the solidarity economy (SE).
This change of the caterpillar into the butterfly is being prompted by the current environment of the pandemic, climate change, the economic divide, and justice uprisings caused by racism and violence. Our society already has all that is needed for the full transformation.
The solidarity economy (SE) is a big tent that embraces many coexisting visions of democratic, postcapitalist economic systems. The framework, which emerged in Latin America and Europe in the 1990s, rejects state-dominated authoritarian forms of socialism, instead affirming a core commitment to participatory democracy.
The potential of these “imaginal cells” can be realized through three phases: (1) awakening to a different vision; (2) recognizing others as sharing a common vision, and clustering; and (3) cooperating, integrating, and emerging.
More resources on the social solidarity economy can be found on the Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy Portal