The theme of the 33rd annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, which just finished up, was “Social Justice Through Solidarity.”
Certainly, solidarity has its strong points, especially when contrasted with an overemphasis on atomistic individualism and narrow self-interest. Yet I believe that a narrow focus on solidarity also has its drawbacks, both as an intellectual stance and in its efficacy in achieving desired outcomes.
Regarding solidarity in the sense of a process—that is, organizing a group of people to join together to fight for justice—the paper I gave at the conference argues that this has some dangerous aspects. It can suppress minority voices, close our ears to nuance and our minds to new ideas, and create new authoritarian powers.
The theme of the conference also referred to solidarity as a desired outcome—that is, to a “solidarity economy” built entirely on values of cooperation and mutual aid. In my view, this is more feminine than feminist. Its proponents border on advocating “solubility”—that is, the sort of abdication of individual interests and agency criticized by Paula England and others in the early years of feminist economic theorizing. Its advocates also tend to take it for granted that what mainstream economists have said about market economies is actually correct—that is, that modern commerce is entirely driven by the impersonal forces of profit maximization and competition. They thereby cut themselves off from access to economic and political power, without which the likelihood of making substantive changes is miniscule.
A feminist sort of solidarity, in contrast, could be far more satisfying. Noting that neither “separativeness” nor “solubility” are satisfying options, we could make use of the model of individuals-in-relation proposed in out earlier literature. Noting that economic life is far more complex than mainstream economists have told us, we could take a fresh look at economic life without the blinders created by sexist and misogynist biases. Understanding that a feminist approach does not mean that we all must sign on to the same political project and/or subscribe to the ideal of a cooperative utopia would, this essay argues, result in more solidarity within the feminist economics community. It would also make feminists more effective in our work towards the creation of more just and sustainable societies.
The full text of my paper (with references) can be accessed at this link.
(Why did I choose the image of the bucket for this post? Read the paper!)
Julie A. Nelson 