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Chevée, Adélie (2021) 'Mutual Aid in north London during the Covid-19 pandemic.' Social Movement Studies, 21 (4). pp. 413-419.

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Abstract

Between March and June 2020, residents in north London faced the Covid-19 pandemic by creating neighbourhood Mutual Aid groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. These groups not only addressed basic survival needs such as bringing groceries and medicines to infected people, the elderly, and other vulnerable populations in quarantine; they also offered opportunities for social interactions between strangers living in the same neighbourhood during lockdown. Their success was linked to their rapid mobilization, adaptability and local knowledge. A study of their meso-level organization on Facebook shows that we should pay attention to the potential for mobilization of these grassroots structures. Their bottom-up organization, based on the principle ‘Solidarity not Charity’, showed a singular way to express dissent with policy response to the pandemic, and brought them closer to the horizontal social movements of the 2010s.

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, horizontality, mutual aid, social media, social movement
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of Politics & International Studies
ISSN: 14742837
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2021.1890574
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 15 Aug 2022 19:18
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/37851

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