Care is in crisis. Across the UK and Europe, the state and market have failed to organise care for children, older people, and vulnerable adults—a failure deepened by austerity, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis. This project tests an alternative: the “care commons,” where communities collectively organise shared resources through radical democracy and solidarity, outside formal institutions. The research develops a new philosophy called “situated utopian pragmatism,” using critical participatory action research to learn from three case studies. The first examines the Black Panther Party’s survival programmes, which autonomously organised care while critiquing inequality. The second and third work with organisations in Manchester and Thessaloniki—post-welfare “second cities”—through local history projects, photovoice studies, participatory workshops, and public exhibitions. If successful, this project could reshape how cities think about and resource care, moving beyond incremental fixes toward systemic alternatives. It will leave behind practical infrastructure—city-wide networks, creative outputs, and improved organisational strategies—that activists and policymakers can use to build more resilient, equitable urban ecologies of care.
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Care is crucial for the maintenance of social connections that enable infrastructures to function. Care is needed to raise children, protect vulnerable people, sustain our well-being, and support older people. We are currently in a crisis of care, which undermines the foundations of everyday life and stretches communities to breaking point. The organisation of care through the state and the market has led to increasing inequalities that have been exposed by a decade of austerity, the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis. This brings into question the way that societies organise and resource care. The commons are based on the autonomous organisation of shared resources, which foregrounds radical forms of democracy and solidarity. The commons provide an alternative model for collectively organising care: the care commons. But despite this promise, these connections have not been systematically drawn on through academic or policy work. This project will position the care commons as 'resistant spaces' beyond formal institutions that can create a foundation for new urban ecologies of care. Social science can support learning about the commons to strengthen practices in resistant spaces. Creating a methodology that is oriented towards the commons remains a challenge that has not yet been fully addressed. Pragmatism provides a philosophical foundation to support learning about the commons. It is a paradigm for inquiry that is geared towards learning through experimental practices that are designed to address social problems. But pragmatism is associated with incremental improvements. The project will overcome this limitation by creating an original operational philosophy of 'situated utopian pragmatism' that uses social science to connect concrete issues of the everyday, experimental practices, and abstract thinking about the commons. Critical participatory action research (CPAR) surfaces everyday knowledge and leverages the strengths of critical theory and social science research to support social action. This project will use CPAR to operationalise situated utopian pragmatism to learn about the commons. It will inform the field of participatory research by generating much-needed theoretical innovation. CPAR will be used through three case studies. The first case study will explore the survival programmes of the Black Panther Party (BPP) to develop the concept of situated utopianism. The BPP autonomously organised care in everyday life, while providing a critique of inequalities in the hope of transforming them. The concept of situated utopianism will inform two case studies of organisations in post-welfare 'second' cities of the global north: Manchester and Thessaloniki. There will be four learning projects undertaken in each city: firstly, a local people's history project to define the idea of resistant spaces; secondly, a photovoice study that examines the organisations' practices as a response to the crisis of care; thirdly, participatory workshops to explore future alternatives of the care commons that 'bring back' learning to improve the organisation's strategies; and fourthly, exhibitions that bring all the resources together to inform policymakers and communities. The second case study in Manchester will develop the approach. The third case study in Thessaloniki will refine the approach and ensure that it is operational. This project will create enduring impact by improving practice and leaving an infrastructure for future activity through the case study organisations, producing creative outputs, and catalysing city-wide networks to develop the commons. It will contribute knowledge to a nascent agenda on the care commons and guide activists and academics working towards social transformation.
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