Solidarity Economics

Vision

The Equity Research Center (ERI) at the University of Southern California and the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz have created a joint project called Solidarity-at-Scale. This project draws on researchers, organizers, stakeholders, and policymakers to provide a vision for our economy; to identify opportunities, eliminate barriers, and promote new narratives to build a more inclusive economy. 

As the compounding crises of economic instability, income inequality, and political polarization have escalated in our nation and the world, many have been looking for new economic theory. They seek a framework that can explain what has gone so wrong, move civic actors to build a more inclusive economy in California, and motivate the creation of new institutions that could steer us on a better course. Our project will develop and disseminate a “solidarity economics” approach to address widening income inequality, rising economic insecurities, and growing social and racial fragmentation while also promoting innovation and economic growth.

Visit SolidarityEconomics.org

Goals

What better place to develop and test a new economic framework than in California? Here, tensions around race, immigration, and the economy have foreshadowed national experiences. We attract roughly half of the country’s venture capital, yet we are the fourth most unequal state in the union. However, the tide has begun to turn, and progressive values and policies have taken root (e.g. the $15 minimum wage, carbon regulation, etc.). But we need more far-reaching ideas and deeper thinking on reshaping our state’s economy if we are to get ahead of the curve. We seek to contribute to this wave of change in three ways:

• Build on past work to develop “solidarity economics” an approach that takes seriously the economic benefits of human impulses for connection, community, and belonging.
• Develop an approach that centers race and understands the possibility and power of scale in shifting institutions.
• Work alongside a group of organizers, power-builders, and change-makers to inform theory, narrative, and policies.
  

How would we do this?

This project intends to engage in “public theorizing” with social movement thinkers and leaders like you, through a series of interconnected events, articles, and communications strategies to inform a new economics framework. We want to discuss both how we should think about and describe “our economy” and the initial policy steps that could move the state in the direction of solidarity economics. We are in the midst of transitioning to a new website for the Solidarity Economics partnership that will be operational later this year.

Related Articles

Scaling Economic Solidarity: The Pandemic, Nonprofits, and Power

The Nonprofit Quarterly – April 20, 2020

Dr. Chris Benner and Dr. Manuel Pastor discuss solidarity economics for philanthropic and nonprofit audiences —and how they play a key role in both filling in critical gaps in the federal disaster relief efforts and guiding long term thinking in the recovery era.

Solidarity Economics—for the Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond

The American Prospect – March 23, 2020

Dr. Chris Benner and Dr. Manuel Pastor discuss in a recent American Prospect op-ed, why we need solidarity economics now more than ever to effectively put us on the route to recovery.

What’s Next? Envisioning An Equitable Economy Post Covid-19 & Systemic Racism With Dr. Manuel Pastor

Forbes.com – June 2020
By Morgan Simon

Community Economic Mobilization Initiative (CEMI) Resources Website for Community Organizations

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation launched the Community Economic Mobilization Initiative (CEMI) to assist nonprofits in building their knowledge and capacity so that they are poised to participate in funding opportunities. CEMI is a $17.7 million and growing fund focused on diversifying the nonprofits involved in receiving and directing federal and state climate-resilient economic development initiatives. The Center at Sierra Health Foundation has partnered with experts from the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz, the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California, and PolicyLink to launch a CEMI Resources website (CEMIResources.org) to develop and deliver trainings and tools for underserved and BIPOC-led community organizations to effectively engage in community economic development.

Leadership for CEMI Resources will include renowned inclusive economic development leaders Dr. Chris Benner and Dr. Manuel Pastor, and national research and action institute PolicyLink, to offer a training curriculum that includes resources on race equity in the current economy, understanding economic development decision-making, commercial district revitalization, organizing social and economic movements and more.

The overall goal of the technical assistance, training, and capacity building efforts will be to help strengthen the ability of underserved and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-led community organizations to leverage public investments to address disproportionate and historic economic disparities. This training is designed to be integrated with other work of the Sierra Health Foundation’s Community Economic Mobilization Initiative in supporting community organizations throughout the state in creating and implementing roadmaps for economic recovery and inclusive economic development. Much of the training is focused on strengthening community organizations’ knowledge of the nuts and bolts of implementing community economic development initiatives, and on taking advantage of public sector infrastructure and economic development spending.

Central to this effort, however, is the recognition that we are in a moment of multiple interdependent crises–of racial inequality, climate change, and erosion of democratic practices. Thus, what we need is not simply a return to normal economic practices that have driven these crises. We need to reimagine and restructure our economy in a way that directly challenges inequality, centers racial justice and anti-racism, lifts up our commonality, and contributes to crafting a new economic story that can become common sense in our language, policy and practice.

Our approach for economic development is centered on the framework of Solidarity Economics, which has three central points.

• First, it is our economy, not the economy. We have to understand that economic processes and structures are not the result of laws of nature, but the laws of people. Markets are created by people, organizations and institutions, and as such, reflect the values and power relations embodied by those actors, privileging some and excluding others.
• Second, mutuality actually drives our economy, and we do better when we invest in that mutuality.  While traditional economics stresses individual actors (consumers, businesses, workers) responding to prices signals, in fact economy prosperity is also deeply rooted in collaborative processes: innovative industry clusters, public-private partnerships, public infrastructure and public goods, community economies and intersecting land, housing, and transportation systems. There is also widespread evidence that those places that invest in mutuality actually do better economically as well. Less economic inequality, racial segregation, local government fragmentation and political separation have all been shown to help contribute to stronger economies.
• Third, because some people benefit from the current state of affairs, social movements will be necessary to generate change. Investing in movements not only help shift economic structures, but also helps reinforce habits of solidarity and intersectionality.

In providing technical assistance and training for this initiative, we will reflect this framework in a combination of formats that includes:

• developing online training and resources materials
• conducting both on-line and in-person training workshops
• developing cohort programs that help facilitate group and peer learning
• building linkages and connections to support organizing and power-building goals

An initial cohort of 17 grantees embodies CEMI’s intent to increase opportunities for community organizations to decide how public funds are spent and diversify who receives those funds. Grantees are located throughout the state, with an emphasis on California’s inland communities that have historically been overlooked for inclusive economic development opportunities. These organizations will be part of cross-sector decision-making groups and bring their commitment to dignity for all work and workers to the public funds that are helping communities create more equitable and resilient economies.