Today, Commons Network publishes the Manifesto for a Caring Economy. It is a plea for caring as an antidote to neoliberalism.
Manifesto for a Caring Economy argues for a regenerative and provisioning economy in which caring communities are the foundation of a truly democratic and sustainable society. How do we want to live and who do we want to care for? What is important to us? This manifesto calls for a tilt of perspective. Individual achievement or collective well-being? Competition or cooperation? Control or trust?
But this manifesto also makes an appeal to politicians: care work must be distributed more equally, livelihoods must be strengthened, the market must be regulated. In addition, numerous investments are needed in the caring domain. To this end, Manifesto for a Caring Economy makes a number of concrete recommendations: introduce a so-called care income, embrace working with Public-Collective Partnerships (PCPs), shorten the working week and establish incubators for the cooperative sector.
This manifesto draws inspiration from the feminist thinking of the 1970s and from the many new economic schools of thought, many of which are led by women scientists. In addition, this publication points to practice: a number of case studies from the Dutch cooperative sector are presented as frontrunners of a new ethics of care.
Manifesto for a Caring Economy is written by Sophie Bloemen, co-director of Commons Network and Winne van Woerden, Project Lead Degrowth and Caring Economy, with editing by Thomas de Groot, co-director of Commons Network.
Reviewers: Roos van Os, Godelieve van Heteren and Jens Kimmel.
Artwork: Mick van Dijk.
This publication was produced in part with support from the Cities for Change program of the City of Amsterdam.
During the production of this manifesto we already published some of our findings in the form of a series of blogs. For that series, we interviewed a number of pioneers and delved deeper into a number of concepts, such as the Public-Collective Partnership (PCP). We also produced a video, together with Vincent Sparreboom. The link to the blogs and the the video can be found below.
For press inquiries or requests for a print copy, please send an email to Thomas [at] commonsnetwork [dot] eu
Blog 1: Exploring the caring economy of Amsterdam
Blog 2: The cooperative economy as a manifestation of a new ethics of care
Blog 3: Towards a government that puts care at the heart of the new economy