Solidarity-based social care as a welfare imaginary

by Jasna Reichenpfader, Julia Bachmann, Anna Raza: More information

Lecture followed by Q&A/discussion

  • Language: German
  • Duration: 30 mins
  • In person

What’s it about?

In our talk, we will present our research project on mutual aid – specifically, self-organised, solidarity-based forms of caring for one another – and their relationship to the welfare state, which we have been developing over the past few months as part of our Master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Vienna.

In doing so, we have explored how notions of welfare are articulated and negotiated amongst people who practise mutual aid, and how they understand their own practices in relation to the Austrian welfare state. To this end, we conducted interviews and focus group discussions with people who practise mutual aid in various contexts, and analysed these using qualitative coding.

Drawing on the ‘welfare imaginary’ approach (cf. Taylor 2003; Clarke 2020 & Bramall et al. 2026), our findings reconstruct a specific ‘welfare imaginary’ – that is, a collective world of ideas and practices concerning welfare, in which solidarity with one another is central. This is characterised in particular by the way in which practitioners understand mutual aid, how they distinguish this practice from other forms of helping as well as from state and non-state welfare arrangements, what challenges they identify, and what utopian visions they develop.

In short, we trace how people who practise mutual aid imagine, negotiate and live out welfare – and how welfare can be conceived and practised beyond or outside state structures. In our talk, we aim to provide an insight into our research project and, in particular, its preliminary findings, whilst also opening up space for discussion and further reflection.

Aim of the presentation

We wish to demonstrate and reflect further, together, on how we can collectively imagine a possible future welfare system from the perspective of solidarity-based care practices and mutual aid.