Mapping the US Solidarity City

The set of social movements that have come to be identified as social and solidarity economies include their own governing institutions both at the global level in organizations like RIPESS (Intercontinental Network of Social and Solidarity Economies), and at the local level in US cities with activist groups like SolidarityNYC, CEANYC, NYCNOWC, amongst many others. I would like to trace out postcapitalist connections between the discourses of solidarity economies and community economies, both of which include commitments to equity and pluralism that explicitly include racial equality, amongst other social axes and ethical coordinates of importance.

I will present some brief examples from New York City of how emancipatory projects fare when it comes to participation by people of color, and those officially categorized as poor, with all the attendant problems of that category itself. It turns out that the evidence is mixed, with no clear universalization possible; however it will not be surprising for most to learn that there are indeed important racial patterns when considering each unique economic practice. One of the most important findings is how people of color are forming and participating in a majority of the postcapitalist practices we studied in NYC.