Demanding, Building, and Institutionalizing Infrastructures of Solidarity in Switzerland

Demanding, Building, and Institutionalizing Infrastructures of Solidarity in Switzerland

This chapter delves into how solidarity is framed by social movement actors in Bern and Zurich, focusing on the social fields of care, housing, and migrants’ rights. Based on a process-oriented, infrastructural perspective on solidarity and citizenship, it examines how grassroot movements demand, build, and institutionalize infrastructures of solidarity in local settings. The analysis reveals that these movements increasingly formulate their political frames in terms of (the neglect of) everyday needs, criticizing state and market failures in addressing basic social needs, leading to growing intersectional inequalities. Proposing concrete alternative forms of social provision, social movement actors politicize urban infrastructures in three key ways: (1) demanding urban infrastructures: They challenge unequal access to infrastructure, framing it as “infrastructural violence”, and advocate for more inclusive, less bureaucratic, and higher-quality public services; (2) building urban infrastructures: They create alternative infrastructures through place-based solidarity practices in neighbourhoods, fostering new community-based citizenship practices; (3) institutionalizing urban infrastructures: They do efforts to formalize solidarity through collaborations with municipalities, aiming to institutionalize solidarity practices at the urban level and thus pave the way for a transformative future.