CLab Recipes for Radical Care

CitizensLab members connect every two or three months in a Community check-in session that supports cultivating a collective space of reflection and mutual learning, of sharing and updating each other on the most pressing political, societal, cultural, economic and environmental issues and challenges we all face.
This time, we have reflected on the topic of Radical Care in times of disruption, uncertainty and social injustice.
Read and be inspired by the recipes of self-care for community care CLab members are practicing all over Europe!

We are in the middle of a health and care crisis, amid a global pandemic, climate change, racial unrest and white supremacy.
There is an evident increase in anxiety, depression, grief and loss.
We all have health concerns, family issues, job losses, and 24/7 news cycle exposure.

Self-care, community care, care work, care for the environment, care for equity, and inclusion. Care is being acknowledged as indispensable to society’s continued existence, it has been rendered visible, culturally important, and socially valuable.
Care is our ability to provide the political, social, material, and emotional conditions that allow for the vast majority of people and living creatures on this planet to thrive—along with the planet itself.

I want to invite us to reflect on the relevant and actual concept of Radical Care , as “a vital but underexamined praxis of radical politics that provides spaces of hope in precarious times”.[Radical Care: Survival Strategies for Uncertain Times. Hi‘ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart; Tamara Kneese. Social Text 142 • Vol. 38, No. 1].

Systemic inequality and power structures affect our ability to practice self-care, are we aware of the socio-economic privileges (who can afford self-care today?, who is structurally excluded?), are we creating safe-spaces (how I am taking care of the group dynamics?), how do we relate to productivity and burn-out (do I dare to say NO?) do I give voice to my emotions and take care of them?

Self-care here is not referred to as the neoliberal imperative of self-care merely as the practices we do to feel better and happier, rather the concept of radical self-care emerged out of the civil rights movements to fight racism and gender inequalities.

Practicing self-care in 2020 also means self-preservation, it goes beyond nurturing or self-soothing; it’s a matter of survival!

We should understand self-care as community care in all the actions, practices and processes of re-appropriation, re-construction, and re-invention of the relationships with oneself, with others and with nature.
Radical self-care incorporates your whole being, your mind and body, yourself, and your community.

I want to invite us today to look at our self-awareness, self-development, and self-actualization, and ask ourselves:
What am I willing to challenge?
What are those deeply held beliefs, biases, and judgments that I am ready to let go of?
How can we practice a self-care that is bringing change at the socio-economical level, that is aiming at pushing back against the structural disadvantages and injustices?

The process of extending self-care outward and building a collective capacity for fundamental change requires hard work!!

We started to reflect on our actions of self-care within the CitizensLab community and asked people to write a recipe of their radical care today.

Get inspired by the CitizensLab member’s recipes and ingredients for Radical Care!