Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic was met by an extraordinary grassroots mobilization of citizens who came together to help each other through mutual aid. Long important for social movements, mutual aid offers material support to people and creates bonds of solidarity. Drawing on research about pandemic mutual aid in the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom, this talk will explore how activists navigated the potentialities and limitations of digital technologies while organizing under conditions of emergency.

Short Bio

Elisabetta Ferrari is an AIAS-AUFF Fellow. Her work focuses on digital technologies and activism. Her first book, “Appropriate, negotiate, challenge: Activist imaginaries and the politics of digital technologies” was published in 2024 by the University of California Press. Before joining AIAS, she was a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Glasgow, UK. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania and received her PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania (US).  

What is an AIAS Seminar?

The AIAS Seminar Series is a session of seminars held by the AIAS fellows, AIAS Visiting or Tandem Fellows or by other speakers proposed by the fellows. In each seminar, a fellow will present and discuss her/his current research and work-in-progress to an interdisciplinary audience for 30 minutes, closing off with 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

All seminars are in-person and held in English. To attend online, please contact Sofia Bentsen at sofia@aias.au.dk by 9:00am on the day of the semimar as the latest to request a link.