COVID-19: The effectiveness of mutual-aid groups and their lessons for post-crisis community care
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Holloway University of London
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
Covid-19 has shown that much of the state, public sector, NGOs and elements of the private sector are slow to respond to a crisis. In many areas, mutual aid groups have mobilised quicker, responding to the needs present in their communities and/or neighbourhoods. In so doing, they highlight some of the political and procedural 'gaps' in corporate and State-led institutional emergency response programs, as well as help to identify resource allocation that hasn't been pre-planned in crisis responses (i.e. homelessness provision, national health and social care policies, food delivery etc.). However, often these locally organised groups dissipate afterwards, and their vital operational and local geographic knowledge goes under-utilised in providing more effective and appropriate community care in a post-crisis 'normal' setting. The project aims to collate, evidence and conceptually analyse 'on the ground' mutual aid groups (i.e. those working mostly off-line and in-person) that have mobilised in response to the Covid-19 crisis to care for vulnerable people in the community: e.g. people who are shielded, self-isolating, the homeless, those with long-term conditions etc.
This interdisciplinary project has three distinct aims/phases. First, to comprehensively survey and thematically categorise mutual aid provision during the peak, and in the recessionary aftermath of the pandemic. Second, to undertake a deep-dive into selected case studies of categories and geographies to highlight best practice and how they related to (or substituted for) corporate/governmental responses. Third, to produce a multi-media online 'Manifesto of Mutual Aid' that explains the 'how', and crucially, the 'why' of mutual aid to effectuate better policy implementation post-crisis in conjunction with relevant governmental and non-governmental institutions.
This interdisciplinary project has three distinct aims/phases. First, to comprehensively survey and thematically categorise mutual aid provision during the peak, and in the recessionary aftermath of the pandemic. Second, to undertake a deep-dive into selected case studies of categories and geographies to highlight best practice and how they related to (or substituted for) corporate/governmental responses. Third, to produce a multi-media online 'Manifesto of Mutual Aid' that explains the 'how', and crucially, the 'why' of mutual aid to effectuate better policy implementation post-crisis in conjunction with relevant governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Publications
Cole, J.
(2022)
Social Kropotkinism: The Best 'New Normal' for Survival in the Post COVID-19, Climate Emergency World?
in Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Mould O
(2022)
Solidarity, not charity: Learning the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic to reconceptualise the radicality of mutual aid.
in Transactions (Institute of British Geographers : 1965)
| Title | From Below: A documentary film about mutual aid and community action during COVID-19 |
| Description | A feature length documentary film (88mins) that is a series of interviews with activists, organisers and charities that enacted mutual aid and community support during COVID-19, and beyond. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This has been screened across the country to over 1000 people and continues to feature in film festivals, community events etc. See mutualaid.uk/feature-film for details. |
| URL | http://mutualaid.uk/feature-film |
| Title | Mutual in the pandemic - an interactive documentary |
| Description | An interactive documentary is a website that hosts multimedia content (film, audio, images, etc.) in a non-linear format. It mixes gaming and film, all within a contextual theme. We are in the phases of editing our iDoc, which will be hosted at mutualaid.uk. It will consist of recording video interviews, footage of our ethnographic work, audio clips, links to institutions and photos. It will be available freely online. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | It has yet to be fully released |
| URL | http://mutualaid.uk |
| Description | The pandemic has seen a fundamental shift in our global society on a myriad of levels: global travel, national politics, but also community organising. The project so far has highlighted in fine grain detail how people and local institutions (faith groups, charities, community hubs, schools, food banks etc.) came together during the pandemic to help the most vulnerable under the banner of 'mutual aid'. As the project enters the final stages and we prepare outputs, it has been clear that there was a wealth of community spirit generated during the pandemic that has seen many people not just supported, but in some cases, pulled out of certain destitution. By using 7 case studies across England, the project has highlighted how mutual aid groups have worked in different geographical contexts, what kind of activities have been sustainable (as we enter a climate emergency-riddled future) and how local and national governments have reacted to it. Specifically the project has found that - Mutual aid has been mobilised as a term to cover a range of activities that it previously did as a legacy term from anarchist thought - There is a distinct geographical variation in how mutual aid operates, in terms of a North-South divide and an urban rural one. - Faith groups have been integral to organising local communities and mutual aid activities - People who needed help did not always come from the traditional forms of poverty; previously quite affluent people were suddenly made very vulnerable As the results and outcomes of this project (in the form of academic papers, interactive documentary films, manifestos and events) are being written up and prepared, further work has been conducted to formulate international versions of the research. We have been busy collaborating with international partners, particularly in the US to prepare further related work that will look to see how mutual aid is international, and what can be learned from different national contexts. |
| Exploitation Route | The future trajectories of this research are truly exciting for us, and indeed the others who we have talked to and collaborated with. We have already begun formulating another research bid to follow on from this that will involve international partners in Detroit, Cape Town, New York and (hopefully) Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. This will take the form an AHRC research grant bid, and involve international academics and mutual aid groups. As well as that, our advisory board - consisting of charities, emergency disaster relief companies, MPs and activists - have indicated that our research so far (specifically the iDoc and the manifesto) will form part of their policy discussions going forward. We have a launch event of the iDoc in May 2022, for which parliamentarians, policy makers and charities will be invited. Beyond that, the activists, faith institutions, community hubs: they have all expressed an interest in hosting a viewing night for the documentary, so we plan to take it on a little 'tour' to say thank you to our participants and showcase all their amazing community work. The documentary feature film 'From Below' that has been created from the project has been screened all over the country to over 1000 people so far, and continues to reach audiences in 2023. There is 'live' pages here that detail the ongoing outputs (papers, web articles, podcasts etc.) and film screenings. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | http://mututalaid.uk |
| Description | The iDoc, Manifesto and feature film outputs of the project have been formulated, and there is already a considerable impact that even the production of them is having. We had a successful launch event of the manifesto and iDoc in May 2022 that was attended by over 60 people including volunteers from the project, local councillors, activists and businesses. The work has been featured on a number of online publications such as the Big Issue, the Conversation, Shareable and others. The PI Dr Mould was invited onto BBC radio 5Live to talk about the project in October 2022. There has been podcasts about the project and the film From Below, continues to be screened across the country. All this information, and 'live' updates, are available on the project's website: mutualaid.uk. In addition, with discussions with our advisory group, local Labour MPs have indicated that our work and preliminary findings will be used to formulate local community plans in the future. Given that our Manifesto document and film showcases models of best mutual aid practice, local governments are very interested in our findings given that it provides a way to help them organise often very scarce resources, or to distribute food more efficiently. An example would be the location of community fridges: in our research we spoke to a number of people who have put community fridges in their locality, and we have performed a quasi 'evaluation' of their usage and their perception in the community. This data has informed local councillors how to go about setting one up in the future. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Societal |