Social Solidarity during the Pandemic: The “Visible Hand” and Networked Social Movements
Social Solidarity during the Pandemic: The “Visible Hand” and Networked Social Movements

Summary/Abstract: The author poses the following questions: (1) What forms are social movements adopting today, particularly in response to the epidemic crisis? (2) Are we observing the practice of grassroots solidarity reaching beyond the charitable model of support? She seeks answers taking the Facebook group Visible Hand [Widzialna Ręka] as an example; it was established shortly after lockdown had been announced in the first quarter of 2020, as a form of social organisation aiming to provide mutual aid during the difficult time of the pandemic. She asserts that communities organising themselves in a manner similar to Visible Hand are an example of how external crises highlight problems existing within societies and contribute to their destabilisation. While deliberating over whether the initiative in question is one of ad-hoc episodes of non-organised collective activity, a discussion-and-contact forum, or perhaps a contemporary social movement, she reaches for Manuel Castells’ concept of networked social movements—and asserts that Visible Hand may be acknowledged as a social movement. In closing her paper, she considers the connections between moral bond and solidarity.

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