About the Comic
This comic provides a short introduction and summary of key points of the Solidarity Economics book by Dr. Chris Benner and Dr. Manuel Pastor. In this book Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor invite us to imagine and create a new sort of solidarity economics – an approach grounded in our instincts for connection and community – and in so doing, actually build a more robust, sustainable, and equitable economy.
They argue that our current economy is already deeply dependent on mutuality, but that the inequality and fragmentation created by the status quo undermines this mutuality and with it our economic wellbeing. They outline the theoretical framing, policy agenda, and social movements we need to revive solidarity and apply it to whole societies.
Solidarity Economics is an essential read for anyone who longs for an economy that can generate prosperity, provide for all, and preserve the planet.
Solidarity Economics: Mini-Comic
Mini-Comic Synopsis
An introduction to the Solidarity Economics Comic, providing an overview view of core principles of Solidarity Economics and how to implement the economic frame into your own communities.
Chapter 1: Reimagining Our Economy
Chapter 1 Synopsis
Solidarity Economics is an alternative economic frame that recognizes that people are not just individuals, but also members of broader social groups and communities; that people are motivated not just by self-interest, but also by caring for others and a desire for belonging; and that we can and should build our economy not on an embrace of individuality and competition, but rather on a sense of the commons and our shared destiny.
Chapter 2: Solidarity and Prosperity
Chapter 2 Synopsis
Chapter 3: Solidarity and Innovation
Chapter 3 Synopsis
We need to come up with innovations in our thinking and organizing that can help to upset the sort of racial capitalism that has benefitted some but bedeviled most of our society.
In this chapter, we speak specifically to innovations in social movement organizing that can move us to a better future. We stress that innovation is actually collectively generated in our economy but that the blinders of neoliberalism prevent us from understanding why we should distribute the benefits accordingly. We suggest further that the neoliberal reluctance to consider the interaction with power obscures how innovation networks can produce monopolies and how inequality distorts where we put our inventive energies.
Chapter 4: Solidarity and Social Support
Chapter 4 Synopsis
What if we started from a premise of solidarity rather than charity? Perhaps we would see that everyone contributes to the economy in some way, similar to the ways in which innovaton is really the product of collective investment and not just individual genius.
This chapter delves into the social wage framework in which we would stop seeing assistance as aid to be doled out and controlled and instead reframe it as a “social wage” to which all are entitled.
Chapter 5: Solidarity and the Planet
Chapter 5 Synopsis
and our ecosystems?
This chapter explores how we can apply our notion of solidarity economics—in which taking care of ourselves requires taking care of others—to the planet, to future generations, and to the people most affected by environmental destruction. And what sort of movements will it take to make these aspirations a reality.