Mutual Aid as Prefigurative Politics—Beyond Anarchism

Abstract

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, mutual aid has received increasing scholarly attention. Mutual aid has long been considered a form of ‘prefigurative politics’. Those engaged in mutual aid create structures and practices as potentially radical and subversive alternatives. However, we argue that mutual aid can be prefigurative beyond anarchist thought and praxis. Our review demonstrates that it represents an important form of political change making practiced by groups with different worldviews. Furthermore, we argue that all forms of mutual aid—whether anarchist or not—potentially politicise group members. We critically evaluate existing conceptualisations of mutual aid and introduce a framework of key dimensions to examine varieties of mutual aid. We proceed as follows: first, we define mutual aid and contextualise it as a form of prefigurative politics. Second, we provide a short overview of different conceptual approaches to mutual aid, acknowledging the complexity of mutual aid as it is understood and practiced. We then introduce a framework of key dimensions that typify mutual aid which can help us to distinguish its different forms. Finally, we apply our framework to disaster contexts and self-help to demonstrate how its dimensions contribute to understanding the complexities of mutual aid.