The Care Economy Manifesto
An Entrepreneur's Guide to Cultivating Care and Community. The manifesto is a community crafted and funded project experimenting with an economy centering care and community over exploitation and profit.
An Entrepreneur's Guide to Cultivating Care and Community. The manifesto is a community crafted and funded project experimenting with an economy centering care and community over exploitation and profit.
An Entrepreneur's Guide to Cultivating Care and Community. The manifesto is a community crafted and funded project experimenting with an economy centering care and community over exploitation and profit.
The Care Economy Manifesto is derived from seven community events that took place from July 2022 to January 2023 in Oakland, CA. Each chapter in this collection corresponds to a different workshop or round table hosted for the Care Economy Series. The information found in these pages is meant to give you tangible, practical knowledge and insights as if you had attended the live event; you will find research, collective knowledge from over 80 participants, and agendas and/or how-to guides from each gathering. The Care Economy Series was coordinated, facilitated, and gathered by me, Sola Habibi, in partnership with other facilitators including Drusilla Cowan, Sarah Chaaban, and more. All events and written research are a part of my book in progress – The Embodiment Tour – a multi-media memoir written in and with community. For more in-depth reflection and insight on the Care Economy Series, I invite you to read The Embodiment Tour.
What is the Care Economy Series?
The Care Economy Series is a collection of workshops and round table discussions meant to support our transition from an economy that centers exploitation and profit to one of care and community. I did not come up with the Care Economy – it has gone by many names and taken different shapes: a solidarity economy, a just transition economy, mutual aid efforts, social justice cooperatives, skill shares, community-based businesses, and more.
Why now?
The tension our communities are facing due to late stage capitalism and post-COVID economics is unparalleled. The poverty class is rising ~ people are looking for new jobs, gigs, and side hustles to make ends meet. The state is strangling our human rights to food, shelter, bodily autonomy, safety, mobility, etc. The moment is now to transition! Capitalism is crumbling before our eyes. We need to find models and structures that center care and community over profit and exploitation. We must create the ever-evolving future.
Driving questions for the Care Economy Series:
How do we get our personal and collective needs met in the midst of late-stage capitalism? What does a just transition look like and how can we make business/other models that suit us as individuals (with our unique needs and skills)? How do we serve our community while valuing our need for rest, balance, and stability?