In the wake of COVID-19, a range of civil society actors, from grassroots groups, social movements, and NGOs, stepped in to provide support and assistance to communities. Alongside providing material support (e.g., food, medical supplies etc.) and mutual aid, civil society organisations have been at the forefront in campaigning for better policies and social protections for communities.
As we ponder the question, “How do we get to a post-COVID world?", we need to consider the ways in which actors across civil society are not only meeting immediate needs, but more importantly, how through prefigurative forms of action they are imagining and enacting new social relations and practices of wellbeing and care.
This event brought together speakers who have been working with communities across the globe, from Chile, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, and the US to document practices of solidarity, resistance, and mutual aid.They discussed how civil society organisations are responding to the new challenges and examine the forms of solidarity and agency that are emerging.
Panelist
Professor Armine Ishkanian
Armine Ishkanian is the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme and Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research examines the relationship between civil society, democracy, development, and social transformation.
Panelist
Anita Peña Saavedra
Anita Peña Saavedra is an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, a feminist activist, and the Head of the International Affairs Department at the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality at the Government of Chile, where she focuses on the intersectional factors that intervene in gender inequality.
Panelist
Dr Irene Guijt
Irene Guijt is the Head of Evidence and Strategic Learning at Oxfam Great Britain. Her work centres on ‘evidence for hope, ideas of the possible’ in response to the suffering caused by intersecting inequalities and looks for evidence of pathways that achieve radical systemic change at scale and innovating with approaches to elevate ignored voices.
Panelist
Professor Paul Apostolidis
Paul Apostolidis (@apostopc) is a Professor in the Department of Government at LSE. He specialises in critical theory and integrating empirical inquiry into methods of political theory. A major arm of his research derives insights for critiques of capitalism and racial domination from fieldwork with Latinx migrant workers’ organisations and communities in the western United States.
Chair
Dr Fabricio Mendes Fialho
Fabricio Mendes Fialho is a Research Fellow at the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme where he contributes to fellowship curriculum development, teaching, and mentoring. He also undertakes research on the AFSEE/III research programme Politics of Inequality.
Banner Image: Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash
