Microsolidarity
In late 2018, Richard D. Bartlett published a proposal to start a "microsolidarity" group — a small mutual aid community for people to do a kind of personal development, in good company, for social benefit.
Since then, an open research network has been gradually self-organising around this concept and these practices.
This website is the central hub to collect resources for the co-development of multiple such communities. The most useful material is currently here: methods for cultivating Crews for peer-to-peer support in tiny groups.
For a thorough understanding of the project, read through these articles in sequence. If you prefer video, you can watch a quick overview of the project here.
Join Rich's newsletter for occasional updates on this project. You can check out more recorded conversations on this YouTube playlist or this podcast feed and be sure to join the Loomio group if you want to connect with other practitioners.
If you want to join a microsolidarity practice group, Rich & his partner Nati periodically run an open program which you can join here.
The proposal introduces some specific use of language:
Microsolidarity is a set of practices for mutual support between peers. These methods bring us out of individualism and into a more relational way of being.
Most of this support happens in a Crew: a small group up to about 8 people growing trust in each other through emotional & economic reciprocity. Crews are always designed for intimacy, and may also produce an output (e.g. a software product or an activist campaign).
The Congregation is a space for Crews to co-develop in the company of other Crews. Congregations have less than a few hundred people, so they can be primarily governed through trust and dialogue.
Many Congregations could form an Assembly.
For more context on these definitions, read the original proposal.
All the content on this site is published with a CC-BY-SA license. So please use it however you like without asking permission: just give credit, and use the same license for derivative works. Unless stated otherwise, assume the author is Richard D. Bartlett.
