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A Mutual Aid and Pleasure Society: New Orleans and the Solidarity Economy

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A Mutual Aid and Pleasure Society: New Orleans and the Solidarity Economy A Mutual Aid and Pleasure Society: New Orleans and the Solidarity Economy Susan Sakash Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Goddard College Graduate Institute Master of the Arts Degree, Social Innovation and Sustainability Concentration, Spring 2015 ____________________________ ______________________________ Karen Campbell, First Reader Sarah Bobrow-Williams, Second Reader ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... 5 PREFACE ...................................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 15 I. WHAT IS THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY? ........................................................ 25 The solidarity economy as a framework .............................................................................. 26 Brief history .......................................................................................................................... 29 On-going connection to Movement Building ..................................................................... 34 Values & principles .............................................................................................................. 35 A note on cooperativism ...................................................................................................... 37 Intentional expressions of solidarity .................................................................................... 38 II. SOLIDARITY ECONOMY AS SOCIAL INNOVATION ................................... 40 Processes of community-envisioned and enacted social innovation .................................. 41 Facilitation, conversation, and the art of social innovation ................................................ 45 What makes the solidarity economy a social innovation .................................................... 46 The local food economy: A system for solidarity and innovation ....................................... 49 III. SOLIDARITY AND INNOVATION IN NEW ORLEANS .............................. 53 Why New Orleans needs an economic reframing ............................................................... 53 Historical precedents and case studies ............................................................................... 55 Expressions of Solidarity in New Orleans ........................................................................... 58 Common Ground Collective ................................................................................................................. 58 Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation .................................................. 61 Circle Food Store .................................................................................................................................... 63 Working through what gets in the way ................................................................................ 65 Racial analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 66 Solidarity and trust .................................................................................................................................. 68 The language that we use ....................................................................................................................... 70 IV. MOVING TOWARDS ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY ......................................... 73 Key tools and strategies ....................................................................................................... 74 Asset-based inventory and evaluation .................................................................................................. 80 Popular education models ..................................................................................................................... 83 Ongoing connection to social justice movement building ................................................. 86 V. OPENING TO THE POSSIBILITIES ................................................................. 88 Youth engagement ............................................................................................................... 89 Making the case for collective impact: Youth employment ................................................ 93 Culture and the solidarity economy ..................................................................................... 98 Putting it all together .......................................................................................................... 101 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 103 Future initiatives ................................................................................................................. 106 Final thoughts ..................................................................................................................... 110 Appendix A: Diverse Economies Matrix .................................................................... 111 Appendix B: Definitions of Social Innovation ............................................................ 111 Appendix C: J.K. Gibson Graham’s Diverse Economies Tables ............................... 114 2 Appendix D: Worker-owned and cooperative businesses in New Orleans ............... 116 Appendix E: SWOT Analysis of New Orleans Food System ..................................... 117 Appendix F: Five Forms of Capital: New Orleans Food Sector Assets ................... 122 Appendix G: Asset/gap mapping of the local food system....................................... 125 Appendix H: Diverse Economies Iceberg ................................................................. 126 Appendix I: Project Names and Descriptions ........................................................... 127 Annotated Bibliography .............................................................................................. 131 3 ABSTRACT This final product explores how expressions of the solidarity economy function as social innovations with the potential to transform the economic status quo and promote economic democracy. Offering an overview of the history, principles and practices that comprise contemporary understandings of the solidarity economy, I then make the case that this participatory, ethically-driven, framework is in fact an example of community-envisioned and enacted social innovation. This assertion is then grounded in an in-depth, place-based study of the historic and current economic landscape of the city of New Orleans. I focus particularly on local food – in New Orleans and the greater Gulf South region – as a system, sector, and economy to delve into the specifics of what aspects of that system would need to be reinforced, evolved or changed in order to uphold the values of the solidarity economy and community- envisioned and enacted social innovation. I advocate for strong networks of solidarity, asset- based inventories/evaluation, and popular education models to be part of a robust tool-kit of practices and strategies. I also highlight the importance of engaging youth and cultural producers in the creation of new narratives around solidarity economy efforts in the city, particularly when it comes to youth workforce development. When all of these stakeholders, strategies, and tools are brought to table, there is, I believe, an opportunity to achieve real collective impact around youth employment specifically, and community economic development more in general, that shares the values of the solidarity economy and promotes economic democracy. Key words: Solidarity economy, New Orleans, social innovation, economic democracy, youth workforce development, local food system, collective impact, economic identity. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to acknowledge here the people, projects, and coalitions that have impacted and supported my intellectual growth over the past two years. Some of these people and projects I know quite intimately; others I have admired and been influenced by from afar. All have shaped this thesis in one way or another, and to all of them I extend my deepest gratitude and commitment to furthering our solidarity in the future. First and foremost, I am indebted to the righteous wisdom and loving leadership of social and economic justice advocates who have coalesced around popular education projects such as the Center for Popular Economics (Emily Kawano, Olivia Geiger, and Jenna Allard), the Southern Grassroots Economies Project (Ed Whitefield), Project South, the Highlander Research and Education Center (Elandria Williams), and the Center for Strategic Storytelling. The theoretical aspects of my research have been informed by academics working across the disciplines of human geography, critical pedagogy, cooperative economic development, and group facilitation. In particular, J.K. Gibson Graham and Ethan Miller shaped my thinking around community engagement and envisioning diverse economy frameworks. The writings of Paolo Freire, Ernest Morrell, and historian Jessica Gordon Nembhard offered theoretical, practical, and historical orientations to how communities use popular education models and critical pedagogy to envision and advocate for change.
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