Collective endeavours: finding community, love and hope

Abstract

Strains on professional resources and complex experiences of isolation and despair have taken their toll on communities, adding to the challenges for social workers and social work as a profession. In a context of austerity and locational stress, communities are increasingly relied upon to enhance or, indeed, replace the need for state intervention. However, grass-roots and mutual aid collectives have the potential for both community support and resistance. Using original qualitative data, this article explores how some groups based in Scotland’s most deprived locales provide collective and mutual aid, and, in doing so, attempt to address some of the challenges of modern life (such as overcoming addiction, isolation and mental anguish). Importantly, this article revives and develops Erich Fromm’s discourse on the importance of ‘love’ and Marx’s concept of ‘spiritual emancipation’ to explore the potential for transforming individual experiences into collective resistance.

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